[Tuesday's Devotional] - Growing by Prayer

Growing by Prayer

Prayer is the primary method for us to talk and listen to God.  You may have heard of, and perhaps read, the book Too Busy Not to Pray by Bill Hybels.  Whether you ever read the book or not, the title is a great piece of advice from the author.  The busier we are (and busyness doesn’t seem to be going out of fashion), the more we need to spend time listening and talking to God, in prayer.

If you are a busy person – take a look at your schedule.  Perhaps you will find that most of the pressure and deadlines are self-created?  Sometimes we take on things we should “say no” to – sometimes we try to get things done quicker than they need to be so that we can move on to the next thing. 

If we force things to happen at a slower pace, backed up by prayer and listening to God, we might find that some issues we worried about, outcomes we planned, contingencies we made and things we talked through endlessly with colleagues have sorted themselves out.  Many times, the result of prayer is a God-incidence which makes our path smooth and something that happens at the opportune time, the Greek word “kairos” is sometimes used in the bible to denote things happening according to God’s perfect timing, rather than “chromos” which refers to the linear and one-dimensional time of our human experience.

Jesus needed to spend large amounts of time (time his disciples might have thought he didn’t have) in earnest prayer with his Father God.  I feel sure that if he needed to do this, we need it even more!  Listen to one of his prayers for us:

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.  John 17:20-23 [NIV]

Action: Pray about your priorities today.  Surrender the things that are causing you stress or worry to God.  Allow him to work, slow down to listen and talk with him now.

Lord, help me to make time to converse with you.  Keep me from busyness and hurry, give me a glimpse of your perfect time.  In Jesus name, Amen.

Dave MacLellan