10/03/2025
How is my prayer life? This is a something that I should ask myself from time to time and it should cause me to adjust my praying according to God’s response as He answers this all-important question. It is more than introspection. When we pose this question it requires that God also weigh in because it is He with whom we are sharing ourselves.
“And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?" And he said to them, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer."”
Mark 9:28-29 ESV
When Jesus had cast the unclean spirit out of the boy, the disciples wanted to understand how He was able to do this and why they were not. The answer to those questions should have convicted them like no other. “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer."
Are there things in our lives that we pray over, but to which there seems to be no answer? Do we kneel repeatedly before God asking something of Him and receive only silence? If so I would suggest that we ask if we are truly listening for the Lord’s voice, but then I would also ask “are we praying, or are we simpoly talking at God?”
Every morning, I rise before dawn to read, pray, and write, and sometimes I might even write before I pray. There is a purpose in that order, but it wasn’t always so. I used to rise in the morning and go immediately into my morning prayers. I had items that needed to be addressed and I ran through them as though by their sheer repetition God might be worn down and answer my plea. What I was doing wasn’t necessarily bad, but it didn’t allow for my spiritual preparation to pray, and it didn’t lead me into a conversation, but more of a desire to unload my grocery list of needs. Yes, we all have needs, other people have needs, and having them answered can seem so important to us that we determine that our prayers should always come first... even before our spiritual preparation and our own loving relationship with the Lord?
I am a morning person. I wake up ready to begin my day, but by evening I am longing to retire... I am exhausted. On the other hand, my wife Ann is a night person. Ann rises later in the morning, and If I speak to her before she has had a couple of cups of coffee I have set myself up for correction. I go by the age-old adage “early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy wealthy, and wise!” Ann on the other hand would readily tell you that this is not true of everyone, and that many people don’t hit their stride until later in the day... and she is right.
I can’t tell you how often I have opened my eyes in the morning to find that our house has been rearranged, the kitchen cleaned and my coffee cup sitting in front of the coffee maker. Ann had worked into the night to accomplish these amazing things. It is as if I were Ebenezer Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol” and in sheer joy I should say “I haven’t missed it. The spirits have done it all in one night. They can do anything they like. Of course they can. Of course they can. Hallo, my fine [day].” On the flip side, Ann finds this to be true as well when she sees what I have done in the wee hours of the morning. The point I am making is that we all have times when we are most productive, and most responsive to others, and this is true concerning our ability to pray as well.
I often wake up sometime after midnight and feel the need to pray. What happens next depends on the urgency that the Holy Spirit places upon that calling. It is the difference between a child crying “HELP!” Or someone waving as they turn away and saying, over their shoulder, “call me.” In fact, it boils down to whether the Spirit has called me from slumber at all, or if something is simply troubling me and I just need to pray about it. If the Holy Spirit is calling me, I dare not ignore his voice, but if I am struggling with something personally and need to pray for myself then I take a moment and prepare myself spiritually for the conversation.
Being still, Reading, and sometimes writing, before I pray allows me to prepare myself for prayer. Having a conversation with God is like having a conversation with anyone else in that we must first seek them out. Then, once we have found them, we need to be in the right frame of mind to have the conversation. Prayer is having intimate discussion with our Holy Father, and it is also our time of petition before the creator of the universe. We come to our Heavenly Father with an embrace and love, and we come to the Creator in awe, and supplication... each of these requires us to still ourselves and prepare our mental and spiritual state for the interaction.
How is your prayer life? Are you treating every conversation as if it were a decree, or perhaps a time to read a list of demands? Have you even found God’s presence before you started speaking? Is your mind in the right place for the conversation that you wish to have, or are you just going through the motions? Do you find yourself as a night person attempting to pray in the morning when you are not all there, or a morning person praying in the evening when you are already spent?
Our prayer life might be great and satisfying, and we might have found just the right times for our most meaningful interactions with the almighty, but is there some habit of ours that just might be irritating God, or Vic’s versa; something that if addressed could make our time together even more rewarding and intimate? We have these times of honesty with our spouses, and those around us... why not God? Revealing or hearing corrections can be difficult, but once they have been addressed then the relationship reaches a new level of comfort and the road to one another’s hearts is smoother and without distraction. Telling Jesus, or the Father what is bothering us is only part of this kind of conversation... listening as we receive the Lord’s corrections is the other part. So today let’s look at how and when we pray.
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for the absolute honesty we can have with one another. Thank you for the many corrections I receive from you and how they bring us closer together. Holy Father, help me to prepare myself before our times together in prayer. Lead me to that state of mind in which I can come before you with my heart circumcised and prepared to experience you in supplication and awe. Be patient with me Father as I concentrate on my love for you and prepare myself for the embrace I have for you. When I pray for my needs, and the needs of others, let me do so out of love, sincerity, and from my heart; never let me read a list to you Father, because when doing that I have no part, no true concern, in my requests. Let my heart and spirit open themselves to you, and let my ears hear your voice as you speak to me in the quiet of my closet. Give me the humility I need to hear your voice and to do your will. Let our time of prayer reflect my desire for you and to accomplish your will; not just my own needs and desires. Jesus teach me to pray, and correct those things that keep me from praying effectively. Teach me to open my heart and prepare my spirit before entering my prayer closet. Teach me to hear the will of God and then teach me to obey. Show me the awe, the wonder, the majesty, the glory, and the grace of our Father, my God, as I bow before Him... never let my prayers treat Him with disrespect, but let them honor Him always. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord my God who hears my every prayer. Holy is He who knows my heart and the sincerity of my spirit.
Amen!
Rich Forbes