Most Christians do more campaign than praying. And I mean campaigning with fellow men. It’s as if our prayer doesn’t count until we get an artsy quiet-time shot to put on facebook. Most of us probably spend more time framing the photograph than we do focusing on God. We have a historically low view of prayer in the church today, and most Christians rarely do it on any serious level.
And right now you might be thinking that you get by pretty fine without it; but, what if we wanted more than satisfactory? What if we wanted more than a shot in the arm with prayer every month? What if God wants more from us than a week? What if it’s actually good for us to have real prayer really become a part of our everyday life?
It is. There is more. It can be more than temporary. And you had better believe that God calls for more than just a week of focused prayer.
Look at the example of the early church. Two separate times in the first 2 chapters of the church existing, we are told that they are marked by serious devotion to prayer. And most churches today would be marked by a seriously watered-down life of prayer.
Acts 1:14 ESV “All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers”
Acts 2:42 ESV “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”
If we simply look at a few commands in the New Testament alone, we find huge commands about how we should pray:
Romans 12:12 HCSB “Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer.”
Colossians 4:2 ESV “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”
1 Thess. 5:16-18 ESV “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.“
Bad news:
You don’t get to call yourself devoted to prayer because you read a devotional everyday for a week. You don’t get to be called devoted because your prayer time/coffee selfies have record likes on Instagram. Devotion is a strong word. It’s life-long. It’s resilient. It’s serious. It has priorities. It’s persistent. It’s fervent.
Good news:
Being devoted doesn’t take skill. It isn’t just for the people with “special prayer abilities.” We all have the same access to the father by the blood of Christ. All it takes to be devoted to prayer is to simply be devoted to prayer. If that sounds circular, it’s precisely because it is. There’s no tricks. There’s no natural shortcuts or abilities. Just as you can’t be devoted to your favorite hobby (soccer, fishing, reading, you name it) without actually doing it often, so it is with prayer. But relax, God isn’t grading your prayers. He isn’t evaluating your vocabulary. He will grow you in it, by His Spirit, during all the time you spend doing it. So it’s simple, start doing it.
Here are the 5 things that (in my life) play a huge role in making sure I stay devoted to praying, for real.
- Schedule is everything. Set an alarm. For me, I think morning is where it’s at. It reorients my mind to be like the mind God wants for me before I go out for the day. It’s easy to prioritize in the morning, the house is often quieter too. So set the alarm. Do it everyday (morning, noon, night, etc.). Just start with 5 minutes of uninterrupted prayer. Go through the day yesterday, and go through the day to come, asking that God would teach you and grow you and use you. It will start to be a habit quicker than you know.
- Write it down. For whatever reason, starting to write down my prayer everyday helped me form it as a habit. I highly recommend buying a simple notebook, or a journal, and write it out.
- Cut the crap. Turn down the cell phone. Turn off the morning news. Give at least 5 minutes to God without any other consideration. Truly be alone in prayer with the King of the Universe. We need to learn how to slow down, for often it is in the quiet, attentive, patient moments where we are most shaped by God.
- Toughen up. There will be so many days where you don’t want to pray. You don’t want to stop what you’re doing to take the time to pray. Trust me, pray anyway. Just like sick people often have to eat (even if they don’t feel like they have an appetite), so do you have to pray when you fee like you don’t need it. You might consider yourself too busy or life too hectic, but you know as well as I do that that is an excuse. You have 5 minutes. You have 20 minutes. Heck, you probably watched at least 2 hours of TV yesterday. That doesn’t mean throw out your tv, but you better believe it means that sometimes you have to turn it off, even when your flesh doesn’t feel like it.
- Pray that God would give you a burden to pray. (seriously, pray that everyday).
Don’t hang out in praying when you feel like it. Don’t be content with surface level relationship with God. Dig deep. Get devoted. Get persistent.
DavidAppelt.com 