"But I will call on God, and the Lord will rescue me. Morning, noon, and night I cry out in my distress, and the Lord hears my voice. He ransoms me and keeps me safe from the battle waged against me, though many still oppose me. God, who has ruled forever, will hear me and humble them." Psalm 55: 17-19 (New Living Translation).
"O Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out to you by day. I come to you at night. Now hear my prayer; listen to my cry." Psalm 88:1-2 (New Living Translation).
King David and Heman, The Ezrahite wrote these two portions of scripture to show that they made prayer a priority in their lives. They made the time, in the middle of their distressing circumstances, to meet with God and to let Him know that they need help.
We are tempted to get so engaged with problem solving and putting out fires that we forget to invite God into our situations. Urgent things demand our immediate attention. We go into crisis mode, which exposes us to the risk of making ill-advised decisions. We especially need divine intervention in the midst of our crises.
If we have not already established the discipline of meeting with the Lord daily, we may get disconnected from our Heavenly Father when the bad times hit.
Talking to God must become a priority, and it is my experience that unless we schedule our priorities, they will be supplanted by other urgent, but less important things.
"But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you." Matthew 6:6 (New Living Translation).
If you don't schedule a regular "when," you cannot expect to have the regular rewards of answered prayers. I have three boys, and I drive them to school early in the morning. I always pray for us all as we drive out of our driveway. I pray before every meal with my family. I make a habit of walking into my children's rooms at night to pray with them. We thank God for the day and ask Him for His protection during the night. I prioritize and schedule the "when" in order that prayer may become normalized in our family's lifestyle.
At our church, there is a scheduled prayer meeting every day of the week early in the morning (with the exception of Monday mornings, when our church staff rests and pray at home). Prayer should be a priority, and it only becomes a lifestyle when we schedule times of prayer at the intersections of our days.
Action Step:
- Have you made talking to God a priority in your life?
- Do you have scheduled times of prayer?
- How can you schedule times of prayer going forward?
Review:
1. Prayer Is Simply Talking And Listening To God.
2. Prayer Should Flow From A Contrite Heart.
3. Your Prayers Should Be Confident.
4. Your Prayers Should Be Concise And To The Point.
5. Your Prayers Should Be Consistent And Constant.
6. Pray In Jesus' Name.
7. Pray About Everything!
8. You Do Not Have Because You Don't Ask God.
9. Asking God With The Wrong Motive Doesn't Work.
10. Ask Expecting To Receive From God.
11. Ask God To Bless Your Enemies As You Pray.
12. Ask The Lord To Make You More Loving As You Pray.
13. Make Talking To God A Priority Every Day.
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Go Vertical: 21 Days To An Improved Prayer Life
SpiritualI have always felt saddened by the unnecessary guilt people seem to feel the moment the topic of prayer comes up in a conversation. It seems like they believe that they will never be good enough and pray long enough to experience delight in prayer...
