| Friday, May 01, 2009 |
| Time Well Spent |
If there is one thing I have struggled keeping consistent in my spiritual walk it is dedicated time of prayer. As Christians our faith is built upon spiritual disciplines; reading the Bible, taking the Lord’s table, spending time in community together with other believers, and spending time in prayer. The hardest of these for me has always been prayer. Life seems to choke it out of my schedule; or correctly said, “I allow it to be choked out of the schedule of my life.”
We live in a busy world. From the time we wake up to the time we lay down at night, it seems as if we are “going, going, going”. We have jobs to do, families to care for, church obligations, and many other miscellaneous activities, all vying for our time. It is no wonder we don’t have time to pray. We don’t have time for much of anything else.
However, I propose that even in this busy world, and in our busy lives, it is not that we can’t afford to spend time to pray, rather, it is that we can’t NOT afford to spend time to pray. I remember reading the story of John Wesley and his commitment to pray. God had told John to pray more, and even though it required a commitment, he did, and when he did, the time he had left in the day seemed to last long enough to get all of the other things done.
God honors those who pray, and if we want to be more productive, and more efficient, as well as filled with inner strength and peace, we must start our days out with a dedicated time of prayer. If we do, God will honor it and help use the time left in a better way. Jesus made it a habit set aside quiet time of connection to the father, and through that connection, the father worked through him. This is the pattern we are to follow as well.
Also, we must remember what the Apostle Paul said, that we can “pray without ceasing.” Mother Teresa said this about prayer,
“There are some people who, in order not to pray, use as an excuse the fact that life is so hectic that it prevents them from praying. This cannot be. Prayer does not demand that we always interrupt our work, but that we continue working as if it were a prayer. It is not necessary to always be meditating, nor to consciously experience the sensation that we are talking to God, no matter how nice this would be. What matters is being with him, living in him, in his will. To love with a pure heart, to love everybody, especially to love the poor, is a twenty four hour prayer.” |
posted by Unknown @ 12:16 AM   |
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