Let's Pray Real Quick

Prayer.  It’s a direct line to the All Mighty.  It’s used to petition and plead, as well as praise and thank God for His goodness towards us.  But so often it seems that Christians don’t give prayer the respect it deserves.  I sometimes see prayer treated as an annoyance, like it’s just something we have to get through so we can dig into our Bible study or other Christian event, so we begin by saying “Let’s pray real quick and we’ll get started.”
It’s a statement I hear often, and aside from being a grammatical tragedy it also leaves me wondering if the event may not go as well as it would if we had stopped and spent time truly communicating with God first.  What would our mindset be after 20 minutes of connecting with God instead of 20 seconds?

We have a model to follow in Jesus.  We find Him in the Bible withdrawing often to be alone and pray because that direct communication with His Father was vital to His wellbeing, and it should be treated the same way by all of us.

Prayer is powerful.  It not only revitalizes us, it’s a tool in our arsenal for fighting evil.  Mark shows this in his telling of a possessed boy.  Jesus commanded the evil spirit to come out, and afterward his disciples asked why they weren’t able to drive it out themselves.  Jesus’ reply was “This kind can come out only by prayer.” Mark 9:29.  Jesus is telling us that prayer is so powerful that it can drive out the most stubborn of evil spirits.

Peter urges us to be earnest and disciplined in our prayers. 1 Peter 4:7, and Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to pray ceaselessly. We’re reminded time after time in the Bible about the importance of prayer, so why do we sometimes give it such little notice.  Why do we sometimes treat it as a Christian checkbox just to say we did it before we start our Bible study, or VBS, or Life Group meeting, or even a worship band rehearsal? 

What would your event or meeting look like if prayer was the most important thing you did in it?

Let’s give prayer the respect it deserves and not be in such a hurry to begin our events. Don’t blow through a prayer just to get it out of the way.  Start your next event, whether it be a small gathering or a large group, with a time of truly connecting with God.  Spend time asking Him to join your event and let His Holy Spirit be felt by everyone there.  Prepare your event for God’s presence and see what happens.  Start your event by saying “Let’s ask Jesus to join us here,” instead of “Let’s pray real quick.”

God, thank you for the gift of prayer. Thanks for being a God that is available to us and for answering our prayers.  Help us to better use our prayers to prepare our daily lives for your presence in them. Amen.