Prayer


"Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, If I should die before I wake I pray the Lord my soul to take, keep me safe all through the night and wake me with the morning light, Amen"

Sound familiar? For many of us this kind of prayer is what we were taught at a young age to pray each evening before going to sleep. We were taught to pray before meals and at bed time, but many of us were never instructed that prayer at any other time was either beneficial or necessary. While teaching our kids these customary times of prayer is good we also must be vigilant in their education, and in our own to make prayer more than a legalistic requirement 4 times a day.

It is interesting to look back at the customary times of Prayer in Jesus' day. It is likely that Jesus was instructed to open every day (sunrise) end each day (sunset) with prayer as well as praying at the 3rd, 6th, and 9th hours. However, when we look at the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, his prayer life did not remain a simple meal thanks or a prayer of nightly protection.

When we examine the prayer life of Jesus, we find that prayer was constant and intense. In the book of Mark Jesus goes off to pray in the morning outside of Capernuam and the disciples wake and begin to hunt for him. When they finally find him, the disciples are almost upset because he is "wasting" his time in prayer instead of healing and casting out demons.

Yet, later in the chapter when we see the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus takes 3 disciples up on the mountain with him, the others are left at the foot of the mount. The encounter a demon possession and begin to try and cast the demon out without any success. When Jesus comes down, he casts the demon out and tells the disciples that "this kind only comes out through prayer." It is interesting that before casting the demon out Jesus himself does not pray. What does this tell us? It tells us that Jesus is not referring to a prayer of special words or actions but rather a lifestyle of prayer.

Why is prayer so important? Think about your earthly relationships. Communication is the key to great marriages, great friendships and great working relationships. In anyone of these situations bad communication is a virtual death sentence. So Apply this to your relationship with God. While studying is vital and important, that is like reading a biography on someone and calling them your friend. You gain a lot of knowledge about them but there is a lacking of relationship. If you want to develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, there is only one thing to do, spend time talking and listening.

Prayer is not a one-way communication. Our prayers are too often "me" centered where we treat God like I Dream of Jeanie we want to be able to say the right words and get what we want. While taking our petitions to God is important we need to remember the example that Jesus set for us in Gethsemane the night he waited for Judas to betray him. Jesus began looking at the reality of the situation and prayed to God, please no, please let there be another way. Now that sounds like me, but then Jesus does this amazing thing, he says but not my will but your will be done. In essence he says I defer to you Father because I know that you know best. If this is the path you want me to take then give me the strength to walk it. Wow. How would our lives change if we prayed this way and waited on God's answer instead of just doing what we want and walking through the routine of prayer?

In a nutshell then what do we need to make sure that we are doing in our prayer life?

1) We need to put God first. The outlook of I can't fit in a large amount of time for prayer is all backwards. We don't fit God into our schedule, we schedule ourselves around God. I know that is an over simplification, but if we earnestly want to grow our prayer life we may first need to examine our outlook on where God fits on our priority list.

2) It is good to have times of extended prayer, but don't forget God during the day with small prayers. Prayer is a conversation, it doesn't have to be rigid and structured every time. In the car, walking down the hall, or while jogging down the street can be a good time for conversation.

3) Christian means Christ-like. So remember to be like Christ in your prayers. It is okay to bring our petitions to God but he is not a Genie in a bottle, God answers all prayers, but no is an answer too. (Even when you really want to hear yes.)

4) Take the Jesus test. Do you think that you are a better person than Jesus? Do you think that you need more or less instruction and correction than Jesus did? So based on those answers, do you think it is realistic to say that you don't need to spend as much time in prayer as Jesus?