Privilege of Prayer
"To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing."
- Martin Luther King
Sometimes I feel that we underestimate the importance of prayer. Maybe you believe that you have to wake up at 5 am and pray for 3 hours for it to be effective. Or roll on the floor and speak in tongues until your mouth gets dry. Now if that's how you do it, there's nothing wrong with that AT ALL. I actually admire people who get up super early to pray, I think its commendable.
However, I'm here for the ones who feel as if having a prayer life is not possible because they don't pray for hours and use fancy words to sound eloquent.
I was always told that I had to get up super early before the Rooster crows in order to pray correctly. Ok, so I tried to get up at 4 am to pray and guess what? I sucked. First of all, I am not a morning person okay?! So I felt like every time I tried to get up at 4 am to pray and fell back asleep, that I failed at my prayer life and I was going no where. I felt really bad about it too as if I wasn't "meeting the standard."
Heres the thing.
Just because it worked for Pastor Harry and Mother Brown, doesn't mean it's going to work for you. So never, ever feel like you're failing just because you haven't reached someone else's goal. I had to do what worked for me, it wasn't convenient but it worked. I like talking to God before I start my day. Now this could be anywhere between 7am/8 am. That's my devotion time, so that will consist of journaling, praying, reading my Bible, listening to worship music, meditating or sitting quiet and listen to hear God speak in that moment.
All I'm saying is, find your timeframe and stick with it. Also, prayer is a dialogue.
You talk to God and He speaks back. Believe me, God can hear you even if you don't sound "deep" during prayer.
What did you think "pray without ceasing" in 1st Thessalonians 5:17 meant? It simply means, don't stop praying. You can even pray in your heart while you're waiting in line at the grocery store, in the doctors office, driving (with our eyes open of course) there's so many scenarios.
Most of the time I'll start off praying by just telling God thanks or singing and then go with the flow (unless I'm praying about specific, then I deal with it head on).
I don't use fancy words either, because trust me, God is not impressed with that.. PERIOD.
**Your prayers dont have to be deep, they just have to be sincere.**
Check out what Jesus said in Matthew 6:7:
"And when you pray, do not heap up phrases (multiply words, repeating the same ones over and over) as the Gentiles do, for they think they will be heard for their much speaking."
All I'm saying is, prayer doesn't have to be as complicated as some people make it seem.
Now if your prayer life is on life support, Jesus is waiting on you to come back and talk to Him. He's always there with a listening ear, waiting to hear from us.
Dont try to pray like anyone else, just be yourself and be honest. God knows what's in our hearts anyway, might as well be real with Him.
September 30, 2020