PRAYER TAKES TIME
Too many people pray on the run, sandwiching "prayer quickies" in
their busy schedules. Some fully intend to give God their full
attention when they get into bed at night, yet find themselves
drifting off to sleep.
- Don't kid yourself. We try to excuse ourselves from prayer on
the grounds that life - our life - is so full we cannot make
the time. Alexander Whyte said "Prayer worth calling prayer,
prayer that God will call true prayer and will treat as true
prayer, takes far more time by the clock than one man in a
thousand thinks."
- Use your time wisely. We are responsible for the strategic
use of our time. Look at your weekly schedule. The amount of
time we allow for prayer will be an index of the importance
we attach to it.
- "Make good use of every opportunity" (Eph. 5:16). Paul
expresses the idea that time becomes ours by purchase or
exchange. There is a price, and sometime a high price, to be
paid for this highest of activities. But isn't it also true
that with great price comes great value?
- Value prayer. "To pray as God would have us pray is the
greatest achievement on earth. Such a life of prayer costs.
It takes time," said Samuel Chadwick.
- Ask for help. To effect sufficient time in our daily
schedules will require strength of purpose and a deep
dependence on the Holy Spirit. You can be strengthened "with
power through His Spirit in your inner being" (Eph. 3:16).
- Look to Jesus. He spent his time on earth focusing on what
was most important: being in constant touch with the Father.
Jesus moved in the restful confidence that there was a divine
timing for all events of His life, and He was constantly
exercised to keep to His Father's timetable.
- Plug the leaks. To secure adequate time for prayer think of
your day in terms of minutes, not hours, and make
constructive use of each of these. John Wesley said he
divided his life into periods of five minutes, then
endeavored to make each period count for God. Either use
those small incremental times for time with God, or rearrange
your schedule to clump them together into one longer period
when you can get serious with God.
- Give God time.Prayer is like the time exposure of the soul to
God, in which process the image of God is formed on the soul.
In our ignorance, we try to practice instantaneous
photography. One minute for prayer will give us a vision of
the image of God, and we think that is enough. Our pictures
are poor because our negative is weak. We do not give God
long enough at a sitting to get a good likeness.
- Wait. "God's acquaintance is not made hurriedly," wrote E. M.
Bounds. "He does not bestow His gifts on the causal or hasty
comer and goer." Spend time with God.
From Prayer Power Unlimited: Achieving Intimacy With
God Through Prayer by J. Oswald Sanders. Copyright
(c) 1977 by Moody Bible Institute, 1997 by Discovery
House Publishers, affiliated with RBC Ministries,
Grand Rapids, Mich.