How Can I Stand on Holy Ground?
“Take your sandals off your feet, because the place you are standing is holy ground.” Exodus 3:6
When Moses approached the burning bush, God told him to remove his sandals. As it turned out, though Moses did not realize it, where he was standing was holy ground. God’s presence made the ground holy, and God gave Moses direction there for his life.
Where is the “holy ground” in your life? Author Richard Foster, in his book Prayer, makes the point that our holy ground is right where we live. In his book he is talking about a kind of prayer that he calls “Simple Prayer.” This prayer is about the ordinary “stuff” of life. It is about our daily needs, problems, struggles, and challenges. He says, “In the most natural and simple way possible, we learn to pray our experiences by taking up the ordinary events of everyday life and giving them to God.”
Most of our prayers are about the ordinary things of life. We pray about our children. We pray about our problems. We ask God’s help in our decisions. We come to God with our needs, as a child to a parent. There is never a time when we do not need to pray these kinds of prayers, because life always presents us with challenges where we need God’s help and grace.
On Mother’s Day, we remember the challenges that mothers face. There is never enough time. There is always another load of laundry. No matter their ages, you worry about the children. You are always “on call,” ready to drop everything when the need demands it.
What better arena for prayer than this! What better subject for prayer than our everyday life? Whether you are a mother or not, this week try to make the everyday “stuff” of life the subject of your prayers. Pray about the good things, the bad things, the ordinary things, and the problematic things. Pray for God’s help and grace in the everyday issues that you face and the joys you experience, believing that God will help you and bless you in the things you do.
It is prayer that changes the ordinary into the holy. It is our prayerful inclusion of God in our lives that changes the place where we are into “holy ground.”