I've been thinking alot about my own prayer life (which is a funny term because it sounds like a compartment of my life when it should be the biggest part of my life). Anyway, I've been looking into what keeps me from praying.
It seems like most days I run around crazy-headed, trying to accomplish all of the tasks I had planned, mix in a little R & R, get to bed at a decent hour, and fall asleep feeling proud of myself. But most days I lay in bed trying to fall asleep with a nagging feeling that I missed out on some QT with God.
I'm not talking about "praying without ceasing." I don't mean remaining in a prayerful state of mind while I go about performing my job, or listening to a Tomlin CD while driving, or reading a Max Lucado book, or writing a compelling, thought-provoking, life-changing post for you folks to read.
What I'm talking about here is real time with God. The kind of time He wants, when we set aside everything in our overly-complicated lives and devote ourselves completely to Him, on our knees, with His Word open and our hearts receptive. A daily Sabbath, if you will.
So what stands in the way? Life. Not real life, of course, but the life we have made for ourselves. Careers, people, relationships, sports, television shows that we just cannot miss, social lives that will utterly fall apart if we cut them short a half an hour, you name it. They are all priorities above God-time.
We tell ourselves that these things are godly parts of our lives that help us to be well-rounded Christians and that God wants us to be active and visible so that others can see Him in us. We're very proud of ourselves, aren't we?
Remember Daniel? Hangin' out-in-the-lions'-crib Daniel? Prayed-three-times-a-day-at-the-risk-of-death Daniel? What about David? Psalm-writing, shepherd boy-turned-king of Israel David? He stayed in constant communion with God and I still haven't heard of one single sheep that turned up missing.
And what about the God/Man Himself? If you're having trouble keeping up, I'm talking about Jesus. The Bible says that He often went off to pray alone and that He often continued in prayer all night.
The very nature of God and the reason He created us is so that we could have a relationship with Him. He would never want us to over-busy ourselves and cut Him out. The whole purpose of Jesus' death was to provide a way for us to fellowship with Him directly. That's why the veil was "rent in twain" (I've always wanted to use that).
The old saying goes, "If you're too busy for God, you're too busy." The times in my life when I've been alone with God for awhile have been the most life-changing times of my, well... life. We all need to slow down and trim the fat. We shouldn't struggle to make time for God. The difficulty should be in making time for anything else.
Too sermon-ish? Then there's only one thing left to do.
Would the ushers please come forward...?
