In our fast-paced lives of the early 21st century, there are many things that seem to get squeezed into the corners of our daily rhythms. These important, yet ignored, rhythms include exercise, solitude, rest, meditation, memorization, etc. One of the most important spiritual rhythms in life is that of prayer. We just don’t seem to have time to pray. It gets the leftover time, if we have any at all. The leftover time is usually at the end of the day when we are dead tired, and when we slow our bodies down, we tend to nod off to sleep.
Let’s be really honest with ourselves… we make time for things that are vitally important to us. So logically speaking, if we don’t pray much, it’s because we don’t think prayer is actually all that important. And let’s be honest again… we actually can’t explain exactly how and why prayer works. Does it move the hand of God? Or maybe it’s impact is reorienting the heart and mind of the one who prays. At worst, it is simply a religious exercise that satisfies the demands of ‘the gods.’
What if prayer actually made a difference both in us and in the lives of people we pray for? What if God actually wanted us to pray? What if He wanted us to expose and reveal our hearts, hurts, hangups and desires so that we could be real and authentic people, engaged with a real and authentic God, in a real and authentic world?
In Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he suggested that his ‘deliverance’ from the circumstances of his Roman imprisonment would be because of others praying for him and the work of the Holy Spirit. In Jeremiah 29, God instructs the Jews to pray for the Babylonians who had exiled them. The New Testament tells us to pray at all times because life continues to unfold at every intersection of our lives.
In God’s economy, prayer is critically important. It is essential for our lives and the lives of others. So, my suggestion is that we live radically different rhythms throughout our day by bringing the real issues that exist in and around us to the God who deeply cares for us and those around us.
Start with confession, move on to adoring God, then thank Him for His goodness and then put all your requests on the table for Him to see and deal with.
Prayer is a staple of life. It’s just an important as food and drink.
Kevin