Getting into a consistent prayer life is a problem I face, as I’m sure many here do too. It is a challenge because it requires discipline from us. It requires us to be able to wake up early and to offer that time to the Lord.
In the course of the day, when we’re busy with so many things, sometimes we forget to have that conversation with the Lord when we pray. Sometimes we also wonder what else there is to pray for… If God knows all of our needs, then why do we need to pray?
But, dear friend, prayer is important.
I once read a beautiful book which has changed me and my prayer life. It was written by a Quaker and was titled ‘A Testimony of Devotion’.
The book said that we need to be conscious of the presence of God within ourselves every day. John 14:23 says that if we love Jesus, the Father will come and make His home in us. It is a promise that God Himself will come and dwell within us and inhabit our very being!
And so prayer can simply look like us taking a pause to recognise this glorious truth whenever and wherever we are. When we are working, when we’re on the bus, or when we’re relating to someone, we can thank God for being with us and in us. That is a prayer, my dear friend!
The more that we stop to recognise God within us during our days, the more it will become a habit. Prayer doesn’t always need to look like long extended periods of time, but about cultivating a daily relationship with God.
Truly friend, the Spirit of the Lord is so wonderful, so full of grace, that it takes just that little spark and then blazes it into a fire! Then our entire lives become lives of prayer.
Romans 12:1 in the Message Version assures us that everything we do in our lives can be worship and prayer when we do it unto the Lord. It says this,
‘So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.’
Isn’t that wonderful? Dear friend, the very work that we do can be submitted to the Lord as prayer. The sacrifice of our hands can be submitted to the Lord as prayer. And even the conversation we have with friends can be submitted to the Lord as prayer.
It is our prayer that you would know the living presence of God within you, and that You would have an ever-deepening relationship with Him through prayer today. God bless you, dear friend.
If you also find it difficult to cultivate a prayer life, why not start simply today by writing a simple prayer into the Interseed community? It will be such a blessing to us all.
Today’s devotion was written in loving memory of the late Richard Magnus.
Take a moment, and join us in prayer.
Oh Lord God, how wonderful it is that You have chosen to make Your home in me – that You have made me Your dwelling place! What a glorious truth that is! I pray that I would experience this truth in greater measure every single day.
Thank You, Lord, that I can always communicate with You. You constantly invite me into deeper communion and relationship with You. So, from today, in everything that I do, I pray that I would do it unto You. May my whole life be an offering, a sacrifice, and worship unto You, my King.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
