Beginning everything with prayer
Feb 18th, 2008 by admin
Our church service was canceled yesterday because of ice and cold so we stayed home and did “church” as a family. The internet is a wonderful thing for that - we can just log into my itunes and voila - sermon on call!
So yesterday we watched a video podcast of John Piper and a message on prayer. Now I don’t know Mr. Piper personally but I’ve heard some very good things about him and his ministry. He’s written some excellent books. And watching him just this one time I can see that he’s a man who practices what he preaches. I hope that’s really true. In this sermon he was passionately encouraging his congregation to be a congregation and thus, a church, of prayer - constant, serious, heartfelt, pleading prayer.
Now I’ve heard many a sermon on prayer - many a good sermon. This one was great. There was nothing earth shattering. There was nothing that the bible reading Christian doesn’t already know. But it was one of those sermons where you just couldn’t listen and say “yeah, yeah, that was good, been there, done that, nice job pastor.”
No this was a sermon that caused me to think about the heart of the message all day long. Do I continually pray? Do I seriously believe that God not only hears but really wants to hear my prayers? Do I honestly and truly embrace the notion that my prayers are part of his providential plan for all eternity.
Uh, no - I mean I can say that yes, I believe that. But look at a typical day in my life and I sure don’t live it. I’m not trying to lay a guilt trip on myself and I don’t believe that was the intent of the sermon at all. But wow was my morning different this morning. I prayed when I woke up. Quick “thanks for letting me live through the night - it’s YOUR day, God” prayer. I prayed before I started typing this blog post - and I’ll pray before I hit send - and I’ll pray after I hit send.
I’ll pray today before I kiss my girls good morning and I’ll definitely pray before I start the car to run our errands. I’ll pray before I answer each and every email (that’s going to be tough) and before I answer the phone. This is serious stuff.
So know that if you send me an email, make a comment on my blog, pick up the phone to call me or drop me a quick IM, I’ll pray for you and for my interaction with you.
Why? Doesn’t it seem like overkill? I don’t think so. If I claim to be someone who believes that God speaks through His Word, the Bible, and that Word is pretty clear that His believers should pray - then yep, I should be “praying without ceasing”. If I believe that this supreme God orders every moment of my day from the moment I wake to the second I fall asleep as well as during the time that I’m sleeping, then yes, every single thing I do should be done with me acknowledging that fact. If I really believe Him when He says that my prayers are part of his providential plan for all eternity then I’m a fool NOT to take advantage of the privilege of praying.
Now mind you, it’s not like I’m going to lay hands on the computer prior to opening each email and go into a 15 minute discourse with God. I think that most of my day will full of quick “Please bless this” and “Help me with this” and “Thank you for that” - literally that’s it… 3 or 4 words before or after something. I do that in many cases now but I want to be even more intentional about it.
So what do you think? Do you pray ever? If so, what does it look like in your daily life? How does it fit in the routine of your life? Do you wish you could or would pray more? What’s holding you back?
I’d love to hear.
Great post Annette. I know I don’t pray nearly enough, and in fact, that’s usually one of my prayers - to learn how to pray and how to keep God at the front of my thoughts throughout the day. Thanks for posting about this sermon… off to check it out now.
Great post, Annette. Very thought-provoking.
What a wonderful post. It really makes you think. I do pray but not as often as I should. Like you, I want to learn to walk throughout my day with a spirit of prayer. I think sometimes it’s easier to do those more formal, longer prayers. We get so busy during the day that we forget that a prayer can be just a few short words or even just an attitude of the heart.
Thank you also for stopping by my blog and your sweet comment.
[...] Beginning Everything with Prayer [...]
I very much enjoied reading this post. The most beautiful days in my christian life were those in which I made God present in my life through “these permanent prayers”, … somehow I got busy and distracted by my job and forget to comunicate with God. That’s one reason I feel, so often, emptyhearted, …I know my life will be whole again when I’ll learn again to talk constantly with God !