How to Fit Prayer into an Already Busy Life, Part 3
Dear Friend,
How can I ever find enough time to pray? I’ve shared some of my initial thoughts in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series. But today, it’s time to share a secret that’s not. I call it a secret because most people don’t seem to know about it. But it’s not a secret because I find evidence of it throughout the Bible. Here it is, written out as today’s PrayerKeeper tip: Prayer is both a relationship and an activity.
Think about it. We speak about prayer as though it’s something we do, an activity. I pray. You pray. We both want to pray more.
But a while back, when I was answering the “How do I find time to pray?” question for myself, I kept seeing verses that told me prayer had to be more than something I did. How could I possibly “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17) or “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit” (Eph. 6:18a)? I realized the only way this could happen was if prayer was more than something I did. Prayer, then, must be a part of my ongoing, continual, always-happening relationship with God.
Prayer is not just what I do, but a part of who I am.
One of my favorite small books, The Practice of the Presence of God shares the wisdom of Brother Lawrence, a seventeenth-century monk. The book shares how this simple man of God learned to increase his awareness of his heavenly Father while engaged in the everyday chores of cooking and cleaning.
Over the years, I’ve asked God to help me have the type of relationship with Him that keeps me more and more aware of His presence. And as I become more and more aware of Him, I interact with Him more and more.
Who can have a relationship without communication? The marriages I know that lack communication become the ones that falter and fail. When a parent-child relationship takes a wrong direction, the problem can often be traced back to a lack of appropriate communication.
If you hope to improve your prayer life, ask God to help you grow in awareness of His presence. As you grow in knowing Him, you’ll grow in talking to Him, too. Prayer will become less and less an activity and more and more a lifestyle.
Have you thought of prayer more as a relationship or an activity? Have you tried practicing His presence? Let me know. If you’d like to leave a comment or prayer request, feel free to do so below, on Facebook or through the email link at the top of the page.
For His glory,
Marti
I love that book by Brother Lawrence. I used to have this assistant pastor who gave out copies of that book all the time. He gave me one and I fell in love with that little thing. I reread it often and each time I discover something new.
The language is old-fashioned but the message is not. Sorry I couldn’t respond to this until now–I had a day of appointments yesterday! Blessings.