"[We Can] Pray Anywhere"

On Facebook today, my mom shared a short video with a number of inspirational sayings about prayer. Of them, my favorite was "God is everywhere, so [we can] pray anywhere." This is comforting, interesting, and also questionable.

It is comforting to know that we can, indeed, pray anywhere, and it's it's interesting to think that the reason we can do so is because God is everywhere, but I don't think that's true. There are some places where God is not, and, in fact, cannot be. God does not go where He is not welcome, and there are many places that do not welcome God. These are places of darkness, where the presence of evil is so strong, God could not abide being there without dispelling the darkness first. If we went to such a place, God would have a hard time reaching us there, and we'd have a hard time reaching there.

However, it's still not impossible. Though we could not meet God face-to-face in such a location without the location itself being dramatically transformed by the experience, we could still communicate with God through His messenger, the Holy Ghost. Because God is light, He can only be in places where light can shine, and because He has a body, He can only be in one place at a time (unless He uses His omniscience to bend the laws of time and space). The Holy Ghost, on the other hand, can go and be anywhere and everywhere, and through Him, we can talk to God, no matter where we are.

Still, the Holy Ghost doesn't often stay long in places that make Him uncomfortable, like those places of darkness, so if we want to maintain constant communication with God, it'd be best to avoid such places. Actually, it's best to avoid such places anyway. But it's good to know that even when you are in such a place, and especially when you have no other choice but to be there, you can still reach God by praying to Him through the power of the Holy Ghost, and you can make a place for His Spirit to stay in your heart. We never need to be completely isolated from God's influence. No matter where we find ourselves, we can always reach out to God through prayer. It may not technically be true that God Himself is everywhere, but His Spirit can be felt anywhere, especially when we pray. And we can, in fact, pray anywhere.