Do you pray?

If you’re reading this, there’s a decent chance you’ve done that a number of times in your life. That’s a good thing, given that it’s a central part of Christian faith.

Allow me to go a little deeper: how high of a priority is it in your day-to-day life? And when you do, are you saying words or revealing your heart?

Tough to say, I bet. I can understand. I’ve been there myself, and I still run back to it sometimes.

I think we can all agree that we don’t pray as much as we should, and it sometimes feels like there’s something hindering us from praying, whether we’re conscious of it or not. There’s many reasons why this might happen, but I’m only going to talk about one for the sake of time.

Coming from personal experience, there was a time in my life where I felt I was too busy for prayer. It wasn’t that I didn’t feel it was important, but more so that I had too much going on for me to find the time. This was a lie. What I had going on was constant procrastination, barely leaving my house, and looking at things I really shouldn’t have been looking at. This “stuff” that I had to do was a total facade, and the only thing it ultimately did was hurt me the deeper I descended. It was a dark time, and one I look back on as tough but valuable in the end.

And when I did pray, I was very… wordy. That is usually how I am, in case you couldn’t tell. However, this wasn’t the time to be. I said big things for the sake of saying big things, I made my prayers long-winded and story-like, and I probably sounded like a moron. I was going through the motions of what I thought prayer was like instead of actually praying.

Eventually, I realized this, and so I started to read about prayer and how it’s supposed to be done. It was convicting, but necessary. God never intended for our time with him to be a daily ritual we were obligated to follow, it was instead meant to be a means to bring ourselves closer to him. A time for growth and not a time for yourself, if that makes sense.

So, what is the point I’m trying to make here? Well, prayer’s very important. When we pray, we communicate with God whether we fully sense it or not, and it’s a time where we can be with him and be completely honest with him. It’s necessary to do in order to actually have a relationship with him, as it is in our worldly relationships. No communication equals no relationship, and the same goes for us and God. It’s hard to love someone when you don’t even know them.

As for my prayer life now, I’m not going to say whether it’s good or bad. It’s much better than it was before, though. It’s still a work in progress, but I now find myself praying silently throughout the day about things in my life. It’s no longer a ritual, and is now instead a proper relationship. I don’t feel a need to talk with God, instead it’s a want. I want to talk with God, and I want to pray about these things with him. Why? Because I love him, and I love the people I pray for.

Now, I did learn some valuable tips along the way that I think are pretty important. Take what you will from these.

First off, praying for things that align with God’s will instead of your own goes a very long way. Our will is naturally crooked, and leans towards wanting worldly pleasures and things that ultimately mean nothing. God’s will is perfect, just, and something we should all be thankful for. Without God and his will, we’re finished. There’s nowhere to go but down.

Secondly and finally, recognizing that you are small and that God is much larger than you is an important step as well, because you acknowledge your own weaknesses and you humble yourself before the Lord, admitting that there are things that only he can do. It’s wild to see so many Christians who don’t feel the need to pray because things are going well for them, and therefore they don’t need him at that moment. It’s absolutely ridiculous. By doing that, you’re treating God as a convenience and not your Father. It’s a very bad practice.

There is a lot more I could go into, but I’m going to instead say that you should take the time you could be using to read more to instead go off and pray. If you see these issues in your prayer life, then go off and talk to God about them. Trust me, it’s worth more than anyone can imagine.

Thanks, and have a good day.