Today was another great sermon that directly touched my heart. It was about making prayer a priority. There were two things that stuck out to me although they weren’t bullet points of the sermon.
1) Prayer Brings Accountability
A little boy prays: Dear God – please make me a better boy. But if you don’t that’s okay. I’m having a lot of fun right now!
We might laugh at the honesty of the little boy’s prayer but we’re not necessarily much different. By avoiding intimate prayer – we allow ourselves to continue in our behavior without accountability from Him. If we empty ourselves out – we can allow for the Holy Spirit to fill us up. Then He can guide us – He can lead us. But ridding ourselves of “self” requires us to be honest and forthright with Him.
2) Prayer Can Happen Anywhere, Anytime
I have witnessed first hand the power of prayer. I have seen what Christ can do when we call out His name. Jesus sits on the right hand of God – interceding on our behalf. Have you ever noticed that Jesus is never in a hurry but full of patience and compassion? The only time we see Him running – is to welcome home a lost son.
It’s so much easier to talk about the importance of prayer – to preach about it – than it is to actually do it. We just don’t have time. We have so much noise in our lives. We become too distracted too easily. We know what we’re “supposed” to do – but we just don’t make the time to do it. We often think that the only way we can really pray is to set aside a certain amount of time. If we can’t take an entire 15 minutes – then we choose to do it another day. Taking time out to pray is important but prayer can happen anywhere and at anytime.
A reminder of that is a little green dot that is on my watch. We were given a little dot – to put on our cell phone, our watch, or any place that we look at constantly. When we see the dot – we pray on the spot. Pretty easy….
No Time, Too Much To Do
I knelt to pray but not for long,
I had too much to do.
I had to hurry and get to work
For bills would soon be due.
So I knelt and said a hurried prayer,
And jumped up off my knees.
My Christian duty was now done
My soul could rest at ease…..
All day long I had no time
To spread a word of cheer.
No time to speak of Christ to friends,
They’d laugh at me I’d fear.
No time, no time, too much to do,
That was my constant cry.
No time to give to souls in need
But at last the time, the time to die.
Then before the Lord was I,
I came and stood with downcast eyes.
For in His hands GOD held a book;
It was the “Book Of Life”.
GOD looked into His book and said
“Your name I cannot find.
I once was going to write it down…
But never found the time”