COAH's Core Practices- Commitment to Solitude

All believers would agree that any God-honoring church should hold the discipline of prayer in high regard. Yet without mutual accountability to one another or common commitments to this practice among a church’s members, prayer will inevitably fall to the wayside. In our fast-paced American lifestyles, the “prayer life” of many Christians today is limited to merely talking at God, quickly offering requests and petitions to Him on the run, in the car, or in times of stress, but allowing little to no time for letting God speak reciprocally to us or actually converse with us. Try as we might to practice ceaseless prayer in our lives, regular periods of solitude with God seem to elude our grasp. Our souls need regular times of two way conversation with God, not just talking at him, but talking with him; listening to His promptings, receiving His love, and learning how to hear his voice. Yet so often, it seems easier to "pray on the run" than it is to slow down, remove our addiction to speed and productivity, and open ourselves to the still, small, and direct voice of God to our vulnerable and fragile souls.

Yet Christ’s model was one of regular solitude, withdrawing himself from his ministry to both converse with and commune with His Father. On many occasions we see Jesus after a day of ministry “withdrawing to a solitary place”, spending all night in His Father’s presence. If the Creator and Redeemer of the world practiced such regular solitude and lived his whole life in dependence on the Father's voice and power, how much more should we as His followers do the same!

In an attempt to imitate our Leader in this way, we as members of COAH embrace a intentional pursuit of solitude in our lives. Each of us commits ourselves to regular times of stillness before God, allowing opportunity to not only speak to God, but to be spoken to by Him as well. We agree that we will be accountable to one another to practice this discipline on a weekly basis . We realize that such a pursuit might have different forms for all of us: journaling, listening to music, oral prayer, reading Scripture, or simply resting in His presence, to name a few. In these times of solitude, we will give our souls opportunity to receive His love, recognizing that it is only when we have directly experienced His love ourselves will we be motivated and empowered to share that same love with others. With God's help, may we be known as such a community.