A Priority for Prayer
After talking about prayer last week I am fired up! I want to keep on teaching about prayer this week, starting by reminding us of the priority for prayer.
Truly, prayer should be the great priority of every Christian. Communication with God is the high point of life, if you think about it! The divine and the human meeting in conversation, what a wonder! Yet so often we neglect this amazing opportunity. I think I know why - for many of us, it's probably because prayer feels one-sided. You talk, but you don't hear God's voice talking back. So it feels like a strange exercise, and perhaps you leave it and don't really do much praying apart from making a request when you need it.
Making Prayer Your Priority
But prayer should be our great priority. For years, I have felt God calling me to deeper prayer. For years I have gone up and down with it. I'll have a season of deep prayer, and then slip out of it somehow.
But the last two months have been different for me, personally. I have truly made prayer a priority in my life - not just the type of prayer where I keep God in my mind as I busy myself with life. I mean time alone with God with a Bible in my hand and burden in my heart. I think a lot of it has to do with a single sentence I heard in a sermon by Leonard Ravenhill a while back - he said "five minutes inside eternity and we will wish that we had sacrificed more, wept more, grieved more, loved and prayed more, and given more." That got me! I think he's right, I think when we see the majesty and glory of God one day, we will regret wasting our days on frivolous and unimportant things.
Changing Your Schedule for Prayer
So I began thinking about how I might find the time to pray more. To pray deeply and desperately. To fervently seek God in prayer. I changed my schedule. I sacrificed one or two other things that I typically enjoy, so that there is more time for joy in prayer.
How wonderful it's been to connect with God deeply! What a joy it's been to go deeper in praise and worship, to pray for the people in my life with a consistent passion. Why, I think to myself, have I not done this earlier?
I share this with you today, friends, because I believe God calls each Christian to fervent, deep, desperate prayer. I want to ask if you would seriously consider today whether prayer is a priority for you or not. Five minutes into eternity, will you regret the small amount of time you truly connected with God in prayer? Or will you recognise the intimacy with God you find in heaven, from the time you spent with Him on earth?
Prayer should be the great priority of every Christian - make it yours today by setting aside focused time to connect deeply with God.