07/26/2024
When we are walking this physical world and living our physical lives, we are prone to pay attention to those things of this world and the comforts of our bodies. Although we feel the urging of the Spirit, it is easily pushed aside when the world calls. My morning reading was so right when it said that flesh and blood do not enjoy dedicating time and attention to prayer. Prayer requires an emotional, and physical outpouring of ourselves and takes up one of the resources we value most in this life... Time.
“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
James 4:8 ESV
In my morning devotional reading E.M. Bounds wrote these words about the difficulty of praying as we should... "Spiritual work is taxing work. Praying requires attention and time, which flesh and blood do not enjoy. Few people devote their time to prayer when duty calls." He wasn’t talking about those quick few words before we eat, or a child’s prayer before bedtime; he was referring to a real heartfelt conversation with God.
Dedicating ourselves to prayer requires that we make a conscious decision to seek God, but also that we involve our effort and time in this endeavor. In earthly terms, the cost of prayer can be measured in the value of the time we exchange for it.
Business, these days, has a Human Resources catch phrase that it likes to use when measuring the time we spend working with the time we save for our personal lives; "work life balance". A correlation has been drawn between productivity, burnout, and our everyday life activities; between our work and our home lives. Too much work and a lack of attention to our personal life is detrimental to an employee, and thus the company. There is a more important balance that we as Christians need to pay attention to and that is "spiritual worldly balance."
We are creatures who live with one foot on earth and the other in heaven. Most people don't understand that maintaining that balance is important to our physical wellbeing as well as our spiritual health. The time we spend in prayer is important, and involving God in our daily lives through prayer not only strengthens our faith, but keeps our mental and physical selves healthy as well.
Pastor Bounds closed his call for more prayer with these words:
"To be little with God is to be little for God. To cut the praying short makes the whole Christian character short, miserable and careless."
He is telling us that neglecting our spiritual lives diminishes them and throws our "spiritual worldly balance" out of whack. We are not spiritually satisfied nor happy, and we suffer physically too as a result.
Doctors have long told us that we need approximately eight hours of sleep at night to remain healthy. Sleep isn't an option for us but dedicating enough time to it is. Prayer and seeking God is much like sleep... It isn't optional either (even the heathen seeks something to worship) and we must dedicate enough time to it or we begin to feel the ill effects of its absence. The difference here is that a lack of sleep affects us during our lives in this world, but a lack of faith and prayer affects us for eternity... eroding our heavenly and earthly lives.
So, this morning as we pray let's dedicate enough time to it; let's hold the stress and demands of life at bay while we give our time and attention to God and dedicate ourselves to revitalizing our relationship with Him. Let's pray that God gives us His peace, strengthens our faith, and heals our bodies and minds... Let's ask Him to walk with us through this life and world as we struggle to maintain the proper balance between the physical life He has placed us in, and the spiritual life that He has surrounded us with. Let's pray enough to remain in balance... Healthy in body and spirit. And, let’s do this all day and into the night.
Let’s ask ourselves how well our life is balanced between our spiritual and physical natures, and if we are out of kilter, let’s set into motion a determined effort to right the scales through prayer.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for both my physical and spiritual selves that you have joined together to make me who I am. Thank you for opening my eyes to the proper balance between these two that allows me to walk through my life without falling one way or the other. As I pray today, help me to silence the world for a while, and to give my full and dedicated attention to you. Listen to the troubles and challenges I face in the world, and right my spirit so that when I return there to face them I will be able to do so as I should. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God in whose image I was created. You are merciful and full of grace Lord, and use my physical life to teach and prepare my spirit for eternity with you, and my spiritual life to ease the burden of who I am on earth by showing me righteousness, and how to avoid sin, and believe in you. Thank you for your Son Jesus Christ who was born, lived, died, and was resurrected to redeem us of our sins, and defeat death. Thank you for His perfect “spiritual worldly balance” that teaches us how to maintain our own balance, and right ourselves before you. Jesus, who taught us to pray, obey you in your will, and to balance both our physical and spiritual selves in so doing. Jesus, the perfect lamb, and one without sin, who teaches us to be righteous in this fallen world, and to seek you in prayer as we should. Praised be your name Father, and glory be to Jesus through whom we are called to balance our lives, come to you, and to believe.
“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”
Hebrews 12:12 ESV
“Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
Hebrews 13:20-21 KJV
Rich Forbes