Praying in the cracks and chunks…
On this journey of becoming more like Jesus through replacing the lies in our lives with truth, nothing is more important than prayer. The Holy Spirit is our guide. God knows exactly why we struggle with what we do, where the lies came from, and how we should proceed to replace them with what is true. He also knows how to lead and guide us as the Gentle Shepherd so we’re not overwhelmed by all the things we wrestle with.
But I’m so busy! How do I find time to pray?
Prayer is just talking to God, and that can happen any time, anywhere. I would always feel intimidated and discouraged when I read about Christians who got up at 4am to pray for hours before the day started. If I tried that, all God would hear would be snores! No way could I stay awake. If that works for you - great! I DID pray at 4am while I was nursing one of my kids…
But for most of us in our season of life, 4am is not happening as a time for prayer. That’s OK. Giving yourself a guilt trip over it doesn’t help anything. What if instead, we found time throughout our day to pray? As we walk through the grocery store, or wash the dishes, or sit in a meeting at work? It can be as simple as,
“Father, thank you that You are here with me.”
“Lord, I need Your peace.”
“Please help me to not lose my temper!”
“You are good and holy and pure.”
“I want to know You more.”
I find that my walk with Jesus is better served by my spending short periods of time acknowledging His presence in my life throughout the day rather than trying to find one large chunk of time.
However, it is still helpful to take time to listen to what God has to say to us. That’s where times of silence and solitude come in. We’ll talk about those in the weeks to come. We do want prayer to be two-way communication. Sometimes He speaks to us through His Word as we’re reading, studying, memorizing, or hearing it preached. Other times He speaks through people in our lives (but always lining up with Biblical truth). Sometimes we feel Him nudge us in different directions as we make decisions throughout the day. The more “tuned in” we are to Him, the easier it will be to hear His voice.
If you like being creative, I have a resource to help you make a “Book of Hours”, which is a type of prayer journal to remind you to pray for different things and different groups of people at various times during the day. You can find it here.
How about you? When do you find cracks of time to pray? When do you find larger chunks of time to be still and listen?