Be Still - January 16, 2023

Luke 5: 16 Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. (NIV)

The shortening of prayer will be the weakening of our power.*

Reading about Jesus’ prayer life causes me to assess mine. Perhaps yours could do with a little once-over as well.  I find that my prayer life is more of a contrast than a comparison to Jesus’.

· Quantity: I have set aside a time every day to spend in Bible reading and prayer. Once a day. And often not for very long. 

· Quality: Most of my time before the throne is wasted in whining. To be fair, I spend a lot of time being thankful . . . so . . . mostly my prayers are all about me.

I believe in the power of prayer, so why don’t I spend more time doing it? If Jesus had to pray for hours, why do I think it’s enough to lay my requests before God and move on? What can I learn from Jesus’ example?

I observe that prayer was a priority for Jesus. My once-a-day routine does not prove that prayer is a priority – it just proves that I have established a habit. The inconsistency in the amount of time I spend in daily prayer is evidence that I don’t always have anything to pray about. That I don’t always have anything to pray about points to the possibility that I don’t quite understand the purpose of prayer. Did Jesus spend his prayer time just asking God for stuff? Thanking him for the stuff he had already given him? Working his way down that prayer list from small group?

Jesus didn’t have to withdraw to lonely places to pray. Just like us, he could have prayed anywhere. He retreated from the crowds and his responsibilities in order to spend time with his Father. Quality time involves conversation. Conversation requires talking and listening. And while we believe that quality time trumps quantity time, it isn’t very high quality if the quantity is insufficient.

Want to pray like Jesus prayed? Learn to talk to the Father. Be intentional about the amount of time you spend in prayer. Be an interesting conversationalist, not a self-absorbed bore! (. . . I said to myself.)

Selflessness remains a key to prayer power.*