This time of year marks the beginning a busy time for many.
The next several months will be drenched in routine and schedules and the
never-ending struggle of time management. And this is a good thing. This summer
was the first summer in years in which I really had no routine or even much
responsibility. And if there is one thing I discovered, it’s that man was
designed to work.
Though we dread classes and work schedules, we often don’t
realize that the human craves responsibility and the body needs movement.
However, the struggle for myself, and so many others, is the art of tempering
our work with our prayer (yes, this is a cliché reminder to stop and remember
God when your busy).
Honestly, I don’t struggle with being too busy to pray. I
have a set time in the morning during which I study Scripture and pray. My
struggle is that my busyness affects the quality of my prayer life. But I’ll
explain that later.
There are a lot of people (students especially) who
developed a very healthy habit over the past few months. That is what is
commonly known as a “quiet time” or “TAWG time” (Time Alone With God), as some
of my friends call it. Though you would think that Christians would be ecstatic
about an opportunity to spend time alone with God, admittedly, it takes quite a
bit of work to get that kind of habit developed. If you are one of those
people, I applaud you.[1]
However, I’m afraid that many people, who have developed
this habit in a time of freedom and relaxation, will begin to lose it in a time
of stress and rush. Those who pray every morning will find that hitting the
snooze button will grow more and more attractive. To those who pray every
night, social life, homework, and the much-needed extra hour of sleep will
creep into prayer time’s place. It’s true.
So I want to offer a word of encouragement. We must remind
ourselves that much of the life of a disciple
of Christ requires discipline. We
must be good stewards of our time. I am not saying that Christians need to ware
themselves out trying to find time to pray. That doesn’t make much sense when
Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I
will give you rest,” (Matt. 11:28). What I am saying is that, if you find
yourself trying to find time to pray, there might be a deeper issue.
Prayer is not a second place priority to the Christian.
Prayer is the avenue by which the Christian is filled daily by the Holy Spirits
guidance. Prayer is something that we should long for, even need. Martin Luther
famously said, “I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours
in prayer.” The Gospels tell us that Jesus set aside time to pray a number of
times (Mark 1:35, Matthew 14:23, Luke
6:12 and 22:41). (To those who think their day-to-day tasks are too important
to set aside time to pray, consider the importance of Jesus’s mission).
The reality is that
being busy is not a reason to stop, cut short, or alter your prayer life. Being
busy is a reason to improve it.
My problem is, when
I get busy, my prayer life loses quality rather than quantity. I pray perhaps
even more often, but my prayers just don’t seem to be as genuine or fulfilling.
I’m not suggesting that God likes the way some people pray over others. But my
relationship with God seems to get dry, and my prayers seem to get more and
more half-baked and selfish.
Rather than really,
intentionally spending time at the feet of my Father, I spout off my regular
requests and check the box next to prayer off my Christianly duties list
(That’s a metaphorical list, not an actual one). And I’m not sure what God
thinks about it, but that just doesn’t cut it for me. How can I expect to feel God’s
Spirit move in me, if I barely pay attention to Him?
In The Bible, when
people experienced the presence of God, it wasn’t something they could just
drudge through and move on from. When Ezekiel sees the throne of God, he falls
on his face (Ezekiel 1:28)! In Revelation, when John describes the throne room
of heaven, he says that even the elders in heaven “fell down and worshiped”
(Revelation 5:14).
Let’s get something
straight. God is not some distant old man who needs you to visit Him every once
and a while. God doesn’t need you at all. Prayer is not for His benefit. It’s
for yours. It is a time to spend praising God for all of who He is. It’s a time
to confess your sin to the Father that knows you and loves you no matter what.
It’s a time to thank God for the blessings He has given you. And a time to ask
God to help you as you live out the life He has for you.
Tony Campolo talks
about how every morning, he begins his quiet time by repeating, “Jesus.”
“Jesus, Jesus, Jesus…” He does this for as long as he needs until his mind is
completely focused on the One he is about to speak to.
When Dan Rather
interviewed Mother Teresa, he asked her, “When you pray, what do you say to
God?” Mother Teresa replied, “I don’t say anything. I listen.”
Whether you use some
sort of guide to help you pray, or use scripture to focus your prayers[2],
or have a more spontaneous prayer life, we must make sure that we are
intentional about knowing Who we are approaching and why we are approaching
Him. Remind yourself daily that, as Christians, we are dependent upon prayer and
we must learn to do it often and learn to do it well.
[1] If
you do not have a habit of spending time with God daily, I strongly recommend
it.
[2] I
have found it very helpful to place different passages of scripture on the wall
right above the place where I do my morning prayer time. I encourage you to
find passages that speak to you and to make those passages your prayer.
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