Praying With Urgency
Paul begins 1 Timothy 2 by saying: "I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people" (1 Timothy 2:1 NIV11)
Did you see the word 'urge' there? Let me ask you: is there a sense of urgency in your prayer life? Do you rush to get on your knees, as the day unfolds? Do you long to have that gap in your day so you can take a moment to pray?
Prayer Should Come First
One of the commentaries I was reading on this passage said this: "Paul began with what he considered most important: prayer. What too often comes last in a church's priorities should actually come first."
I thought that was profound. What too often comes last in a church's priorities should actually come first.
For pastors this is particularly important, and Paul was a pastor of sorts writing to a younger pastor, really. In our Church of the Nazarene Manual, there's a section describing the work of a pastor, and the first duty for the pastor is to pray. The rest of the duties - preaching, running the church, etc - come after that. That always convicts me.
A Call to Every Believer
But I think this is true for each Christian - pastor or not. Our primary call as children of God is to pray. It should be first on our list of priorities, and yet so often, it slips down our list and we end up doing all sorts of other things and leaving prayer out.
Stonewall Jackson was a military leader in the American Civil War in the 1800s. He was known to be a man of prayer, and he wrote this: "I have so fixed the habit in my mind that I never raise a glass of water to my lips without asking God's blessing; never seal a letter without putting a word of prayer under the seal; never take a letter from the post without a brief sending of my thoughts heavenward; never change my classes in the lecture room without a minute's petition for the cadets who go out and for those who come in."
That's faithfulness in prayer, isn't it? Doing all you do with that prayerful spirit.
Paul here is saying to Timothy that prayer is at the heart of the Christian life! So let's begin the week, simply, by recommitting to regular, heartfelt, real prayer.
May Paul's sense of urgency be real for you, as you pray through the day, but also rush to the quiet place each day to be on your knees in prayer.
Paul urges Timothy that prayer should be the first priority of the Christian life, not something that slips to the bottom of the list. Recommit today to praying with real urgency, rushing to the quiet place rather than putting it off until later.