“Nothing equals or replaces a daily, consistent secret life with God. However, prayer retreats can be highly significant in our spiritual journey to augment and complement our daily disciplines.

“Effective retreats will wisely include four elements: solitude, no entertainment, fasting, and the Gospels.

“Solitude: Get alone. The quieter the better. Get far away from the everyday demands of life. Shut yourself into your room, except for a daily outdoor walk by yourself. At most, one phone call a day. Face the loneliness head-on…The violent separation from all distractions is vital to maximizing your retreat time.

“No entertainment: This means no TV, videos, radio, newspapers, computer games, magazines, etc. Part of the intensity of the retreat will derive from your refusal to numb the boredom of being with no one else or nothing else but God.

“Fasting: Fasting has the dual benefit of freeing you from the distraction of food preparation and consumption, and intensifying your spiritual pursuit by means of the grace released through self-denial. The more austere your fast, the greater the benefit.

“The Gospels: Let your retreat be filled with meditations in a wide variety of Scriptures, but by all means include and emphasize large portions of readings in the Gospels. Read the red. Let Jesus Himself hold the central place of your heart during these precious moments.

“…For those who have the ability to devote larger chunks of time to an annual retreat, I would strongly urge you to experiment with seven or more days in solitude with God…If you can receive it, I am truthfully pointing you to one of the greatest secrets of the secret place. Your secret life can be ignited into new levels with God through the strategic employment of prayer and fasting retreats at planned intervals throughout the journey.”—Bob Sorge

My Prayer

“Lord, this is one of my greatest needs and struggles. My life seems so overwhelmed with work and people that it’s hard to go for retreats, but whenever I do go for these retreats, my life is always totally transformed. To get days off for retreats isn’t easy—but how I long for such days of solitude with You, Lord. They are always so rich and refreshing. Lord, compel me to compulsorily block days of retreat every quarter of the year, starting with this quarter. In Jesus name. Amen.”

The Challenge

Join me today to mark out a few days for personal retreat in this quarter. Then determine to protect those days with your very life.