I’m 53. And for as long as I can remember I’ve struggled to pray. The reasons have varied in different seasons, but the struggle to pray persistently and consistently has been real.
I know prayer is crucial to my relationship with God.
I know prayer is crucial to my relationship with you.
And I believe with ALL my heart that that God not only INVITES us to pray but that He uses our prayers to move His mission and ministry forward this side of heaven.
The obvious question becomes… If I know all of that to be true then why do I struggle to pray?
I think we find a clear answer to that in the Garden… no, not the Garden of Eden, but the Garden of Gethsemane. See this with me in Matthew’s Gospel…
“Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak!”
Matthew 26:41 (NLT)
Hours before Jesus was going to be killed, He asked a few of his disciples to pray. Jesus prayed. In fact, Jesus agonized in prayer. And while He was praying, sadly, his disciples were fast asleep.
Yes, you read that correctly. Hours before Jesus would go to the cross, they were sleeping. How could they be sleeping at a time like this? Did they not know what was happening? Yes, it was late, but one would think if Jesus asked you to pray hours before going to the cross, well, one would think that you’d be found praying not sleeping. What happened?
What happened to them is what happens to me, and I’m guessing what happens to many of us.
URGENCY.
How urgent is prayer to you? If prayer is something you can do later then you will. But if prayer is viewed through the lens of urgency – that is to say, that it’s the most important thing you can do, then guess what? You won’t sleep when God has called you to pray. You won’t delay or put off until later what God has invited you to do now.
The disciples’ prayers would not have changed Jesus going to the cross, but the disciples in prayer had the opportunity to impact how Jesus walked to the cross. How encouraged do you envision that Jesus would have been walking to the cross knowing that His disciples had bathed Him in prayer?
Who has God called you to pray for? What circumstance or situation has God invited you to pray into? When God invites us to pray, and just so you know, He invites all of us to pray all day every day, He is inviting us to join Him in His work through prayer.
His invitation and work are nothing short of urgent. Thus, when He prompts you to pray, at any moment in the day no matter the hour, let’s not sleep through that moment.
As we prepare to end week number two in our 21 days of Prayer today, maybe take a moment to simply pray…
“Heavenly Father, stir afresh in my heart a sense of urgency to pray as if it’s the most important thing I could be doing, because it is.”
