Guest Blog by Brennan Jenkins
Every Christian knows they should pray - to not pray is to have no connection, no relationship with Jesus. It is clear that we must pray. But I think most of us either fail to take it seriously, or we fall short in how we go about it.
Prayer is not just when you close your eyes at night and ask God for the things you need. It’s not just what you say before a meal. Not that those acts don’t have value, but prayer is not just our time alone with God, or what normally comes to mind when we say ‘prayer.’ We should see prayer as meaning our whole life with God; how well we pray is how well we live with Jesus.
There are two thoughts on prayer that have been stirring inside my heart and I know that God has been slowly working on me to take these seriously and change how I live my life. These are two challenges that I think every Christian (myself very much included) need to hear and listen to:
You need to take prayer more seriously
You need to pray more
We need to take prayer more seriously, for our own relationship with Jesus, and for the world. There is nothing greater that humans can do to have an impact on the world than to pray. There is nothing we can do to by our own power to change hearts and lives, and see God’s kingdom come, to see his goodness on earth. Yet for me, and maybe it’s the same for you, I am squandering that gift, that potential, that opportunity and responsibility God has given me to impact this world for good and show the love of Jesus.
I need to take prayer more seriously.
And I need to pray more. When I say that, I actually am not referring to sitting alone in your room talking to God, although we absolutely need that, and many of us should do that more. But I actually think what will impact our world and change our lives more is to not just have a bit more time cut out for God (although needed), but to instead try to invite God into every moment of our day and every thought in our mind. To take up the call of 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
Pray continually. Or some translations say, “pray without ceasing.” That might sound impossible, and if you were to try it tomorrow, it would be. You cannot be a disciple of Jesus just by knowing the right things to do and then doing them; that is not how life works. Discipling under Jesus means daily practicing his ways and growing in them, becoming more like him for the rest of our lives, and one very important way is to learn how to pray continually.
I've recently read this book, “Letter from a Modern Mystic.” It’s a short collection of letters from a missionary from 1930-1932, learning and practicing this very thing. Through these letters you see the ups and downs, the growth and the challenges, and by the end you see a life transformed by this practice of Jesus. Early in his journey he says this:
“This year I have started out trying to live all my waking moments in conscious listening to the inner voice, asking without ceasing, ‘What, Father, do you desire said? What, Father, do you desire done this minute?’ It is clear that this is exactly what Jesus was doing all day every day. But it is not what His followers have been doing in very large numbers.” (Frank Laubach)
That is the challenge, to grow in that every day. This is the challenge God has put on my heart, by saying “you need to pray more.”
I said above that if you tried to pray continually tomorrow it would be impossible, and that’s not only because we need to learn to pray, learn to have God at the front of our minds continually, but we also need to learn how to shut out the noise that blocks God out.
Praying continually does not happen in an over-busy life. That constant connection with God the Father does not happen when we are distracted every waking minute, when we always have the tv on, or the music blaring, or are looking at our phones and scrolling through social media every time we have a spare second. Our world has almost choked out this practice of Jesus with our continual distraction, and we need to fight against it.
We need to learn to live in the quiet, to fight the urge to grab our phone every chance we get, to have moments daily where we look around at the world throughout our day and say, “God what do you desire?” And then you pray, invite God into every moment that you remember him, every interaction, every life decision, every person you meet. In all things you can say, “God, have your way,” because you have invited him in. And then when you hear the prompting from God, act.
Here are some tips, some things I’m trying and struggling to do as a disciple of Jesus.
The best things you can do is slow down, get less distracted, make room for God and prayer, and then find ways to remind yourself of God during the day. If you start this, and keep growing in it, you can learn to pray without ceasing. This will take a long time, but this is how we live like Jesus. Set reminders on your phone, make time to get away and pray for a couple minutes at a time throughout your day, listen to worship music more often, memorize scripture and meditate on it throughout your day, listen to the bible while driving or walking.
Don’t separate your time with God from the rest of your life; live with God in every moment. Make every moment holy, from the mountain to the valley, from the exciting to the mundane, from the beautiful to the ugly. Invite God into every moment, just as Jesus did.
Let’s see what God will do when we learn to pray continually.
- Brennan Jenkins
*If you want some more teaching and reflections on prayer and how to live with God and abide in Jesus, check out the ‘Rule of Life’ Podcast and their 4-week study on prayer.