This month I’ve been thinking a lot about prayer and what an amazing gift it is. It totally blows my mind that the Creator of the universe enjoys spending time with us in prayer! But often, we don’t make the most of this awesome gift. We don’t spend enough time in prayer. This month I was reminded of this poem:
No Time to Pray
I got up early one morning
And rushed right into the day,
I had so much to accomplish,
That I didn’t have time to pray.
Problems just tumbled around me
And heavier came each task,
“Why doesn’t God help me?” I wondered,
He answered, “You didn’t ask!”
I wanted joy and beauty
But the day was grey and bleak,
I wondered why God didn’t show me
He said- “You didn’t seek!”
I tried to come into God’s presence
I used all my keys at the lock,
God gently and lovingly chided
“My child, you didn’t knock!”
I woke up early this morning
And paused before entering the day,
I had so much to accomplish
That I had to take time to pray!
Prayer really is vitally important in our walk with God. After all:
How can we grow closer to God, if we don’t spend time with Him?
Jesus was in constant fellowship with God. He spent lots of time in prayer, receiving God’s strength and remaining close to Him. There are many times in the Gospels where Jesus went off by Himself to pray (a few examples being: Mark 1:35, Mark 6:46, Matthew 14:23.) How can we be in constant fellowship with God if we don’t pray? How can we grow closer to our Father without speaking to Him?
How can we know God’s will, if we don’t ask Him what it is?
Praying is not only speaking to God – it’s spending time with Him. That means that we aren’t the only ones doing the talking, we also need to listen to what He wants to tell us. Sometimes we say ‘I don’t know what God wants me to do about that situation,’ but we actually haven’t asked Him what to do. How can we make the decisions He wants us to make, if we don’t ask Him to reveal His will to us?
How can we receive if we don’t ask?
John 16:24 says ‘Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.’ 1 John 5:14+15 says ‘This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us- whatever we ask- we know that we have what we asked of him.’
If we don’t ask God for what we need how can we expect Him to give it to us. If we don’t ask Him for help, how can we expect Him to help us?
A Good Prayer Life
Having a good prayer life isn’t something we can do by ourselves. When we try to accomplish it ourselves, we end up falling flat on our faces! In his book Prayer Power, Andrew Murray writes, ‘My prayer life must be brought entirely under the control of Christ and His love. Then, for the first time, will prayer become what it really is, the natural and joyous breathing of the spiritual life, by which the heavenly atmosphere is inhaled and then exhaled in prayer.’ We need to lay aside our efforts and trust God to help us.
How can we do that?
We need to ask God to help us. In the same book a minister gives a woman this advice on how to overcome prayerlessness ‘Bow before Him, and tell Him that He sees in what a sad state you are and that your only hope is in Him. Trust Him with a childlike trust to have mercy upon you, and wait upon Him. In such a trust you are in a right relationship to Him. You have nothing: He has everything.’
Keep a Journal
If you don’t battle with prayerlessness but still find it difficult expressing yourself in prayer, why not try keeping a prayer journal? Some people I’ve spoken to say that they find it much easier to write out their prayers to God. I started a prayer journal a few years ago and it has been a real blessing. I write down my prayers during the week and then every now and then go back over what I’ve been praying for. It’s so amazing when you look back and realise that God has answered a prayer you prayed weeks before. Then, you can thank Him for it.
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