Prayer is Expected
We have in Jesus a great example of commitment to prayer. And let me remind us today that as Christ-followers, we are expected to pray.
The New Testament takes it for granted that the people of God are praying. Paul would write to the early churches, addressing all sorts of issues in their communities, but never does he say that he hears they aren’t praying enough. He asks them to pray about certain things, with the expectation that these are people of deep prayer.
Consecration Means Prayer
EM Bounds always wrote convicting words on the subject of prayer. Listen to his words about how a life that is truly consecrated to God is always a life of prayer, from his book The Essentials of Prayer: “Here is the true test of consecration. It is a life of prayer. Unless prayer is preeminent, and unless prayer is to the front, the consecration is faulty, deceptive, and falsely named. Does he pray? Does she pray? That is the test question of every so-called consecrated man or woman. Is he or she a person of prayer? No consecration is worth a thought if it is devoid of prayer. Even more – if theirs is not preeminently and primarily a life of prayer.”
Let me ask us a burning question today: are we people who others expect to pray? Or would prayer coming from our mouths seem strange to the people who know us?
I remember once as a teenager being asked to pray at a family supper with distant relatives. I prayed a very wordy prayer, and they never asked me to pray again for the rest of the trip! Perhaps I was over-zealous in the prayer I prayed – but at least they got to expect from me a prayerfulness that is fitting for a follower of Jesus.
Scared of Prayer
Sadly, many of us shy away from prayer. Maybe we just don’t know where to start. Maybe we’re embarrassed. Maybe we hear the professionals – the people who do it in church – and feel as if we don’t match up and so we don’t pray out loud ever because we feel we’d be inferior.
But I think we should be praying so much that it is just natural to us. I think our homes should be so filled with prayer that for us to stop and pray together about something shouldn’t be weird, but normal. I think we the people of Jesus should we so prayerful that we don’t mind praying with other people around, in public places, out loud.
Of course, different people pray differently – we’ll never all look the same in our ways of praying. But prayer should never be weird or uncomfortable to us, it should be almost as natural as breathing!
Prayer is expected not just of the clergy, but of every child of God! May you find a new joy in your relationship with Jesus, by consecrating your life to Him truly, and going deeper than ever before in prayer, as God expects.
