This week prayer hasn’t gone according to my plans. What I mean is, at the most unexpected moments the Holy Spirit has prompted me to pray. Oddly enough, these promptings have come at my weakest and most distracted points of the day and not during my planned times of study and prayer.
Here’s the lesson: On the one hand I plan to pray; on the other hand I can’t.
PLANNING TO PRAY
For Christians, I am convinced that the most important aspect of our lives is prayer. I will go further and say it should be the most natural part of our walk with Christ. As the very act of breathing is natural and necessary to a human being, so prayer is the natural and necessary inhale and exhale of the redeemed soul. Don’t stop breathing! Yet prayer is also a spiritual discipline that must be developed and established. A prayer life is built one prayer at a time. You must purpose to pray, like you must purpose to eat or to work or to exercise. For many, this is difficult. But it shouldn’t be. Martin Luther says, "For God does not ask how much or how long you have prayed, but how good the prayer is and whether it proceeds from the heart." So while prayer is a duty, it is also a delight. It is more than doing; it is being. It is being with Jesus. Are you planning on spending time with Jesus? Five minutes with Him can change the course of an entire day.
PRAYING WITHOUT PLANNING
The upside of planning to pray is that you come to learn to distinguish the voice of God and the prompting of His hand. Practically, this means that you may be sitting on your couch or taking a walk and suddenly the desire and urge to pray comes upon you. You begin to pray without hesitation. You begin to pray for things that come into your heart and mind. And then as suddenly as the desire comes, it goes. We must come to understand that these moments of spontaneous prayer are purposeful and strategic. They are not random and pointless. God reveals the will of His heart to us in prayer. Our hearts are then conformed through praying and are able to respond by praying according to His will. Prayer becomes an act of worshipful obedience, and spontaneous prayer the fruit of a healthy, disciplined life of prayer. An individual or a church that does not plan to pray will never notice that the Holy Spirit has been limited in what He can teach and do in them. On the other hand, a church that plans to pray will come to know and experience the power of the Holy Spirit in their midst, as He teaches and leads them, works in them and through them. A praying church is a church that is alert, prepared, equipped, and empowered at all times.
Plan to pray, to be with Jesus. You will begin to find yourself praying more at all times and in all places (Ephesians 6:18). You will come to know the Holy Spirit better and to recognize His promptings as He leads you in the will of God.
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Posted by: Weeloani | 11/01/2012 at 10:59 PM