Yorrie Richard's Prayer Shed Part 1 — Yorrie Richards

Jory, could you tell me how you sought the Lord in your personal prayer times, and particularly about your shed?

The Isolation and Personal Significance of a Prayer Shed

Yes. Actually, from the earliest days of my conversion, I've always had something about sheds. There's something... Aidan and I, we once read a magazine, and the headings of an article inside one of them said, Save your marriage, buy your husband a garden shed.

And we smiled over this, but I can tell you this. There is something special about a shed. There's something special about isolation. And not long after I got converted, my first prayer shed was bought from a man when I used to work in the steelworks at Port Talbot, just on coming out of the Bible College.

And my first prayer shed used to be used as a pigeon loft, and the man who sold it to me used to keep pigeons, which he gave up doing. So he sold me this prayer shed, and he said that he would even deliver it to my house on his lorry, which he did do.

So my first prayer shed was a converted, a born-again pigeon loft. But the lovely sense of isolation that I got from that was totally beautiful. What's inside the shed? Well, there's my desk in there, there's a chair, there's a light, there's a heater, although we wouldn't be using heaters in a day like this.

But I papered it out, I lined it out with some polystyrene, lined the ceiling part of it with polystyrene tiles, and I mulched the whole shed out. And one of the friends of mine, who was a carpet salesman, had a piece of carpet that he gave me, and even fitted it for me.

That's in this shed, which is behind me now. So it's got fitted carpets in this one.

What would you say, what advice would you give, say, to a new Christian in their walk with the Lord about their prayer life? What advice would you give?

Prayer as Essential to the Christian Life

Essential. Prayer life is absolutely essential. Prayer to a Christian is what water is to a fish. Take a fish out of water and he'll be dead in a short while. Take a born-again Christian person out of a prayerful environment and he's not going to last long, because it is absolutely essential to develop and to keep on developing a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ's Living Presence and the Need for Isolation

Jesus is more than something of an historical figure. He is a person who is alive today. Yes, he is seated at the right hand of the Father on high, and a Christian person is seated in Christ, in the glory.

He is our representative. So to develop a personal relationship with him, I believe it is essential to do all that you can possibly do to make it possible for you to find isolation, to get aside, come apart, he said to his disciples once.

Come apart and rest a while. There is nothing like coming aside, especially when I was a working man. I would come home at night, I would have some supper, and then I'd go up my shed and spend some time with the Lord before retiring to bed.

Total isolation is a must for Christians if they want to develop a live-in relationship with God.

Jory, sometimes it's, you know, people can pray a prayer and nothing happens. Could you perhaps.

Share what's the importance of persistence in prayer? Well, to me, prayer is not always about asking for something from God. Many times, God, when you come alone with him in prayer, he's asking you for something.

It's not always asking for things, but it's a relationship. When I had my wife with me, I wanted to be with her. I wanted to be close to her. She was almost an assurance in life for me, and it's the same with God.

Persistence in Prayer as Relationship Rather Than Request

Once you develop a relationship, a relationship with Christ, someone who is with you unto the ends of the earth, he said. And to me, prayer is something more than asking. It's giving. Sometimes I go into my prayer shed and I simply fall to my knees in prayer.

Worship, Praise, and Entering God's Presence

Not so much in prayer, perhaps, but in worship. I fall at his feet and simply praise him. Praise him not only for what he can do for me, but I praise him and worship him for who he is, the great son of the living God, the one who is so great that the heavens of heavens cannot contain him.

And yet, he lives within this heart of mine. It's absolutely wonderful just to come into his presence.