Prayer is the struggle of my life. Maybe not what you expect to hear from a pastor, but true nonetheless. I am a task-oriented person. I like to check things off my list and I like to see what I have accomplished. But you cannot check a relationship off your list and prayer is a relationship. It is not a task and you cannot see what you’ve accomplished, at least not in the immediate moments after you conclude your praying.
Being task-oriented contributes to my struggle with prayer, but it also my busyness. I try to cram too much into my day. Perhaps because I want to check more and more things off my list, but probably because I get involved in too many things. And then there is just laziness…not seeing the relationship of prayer as a value that deserves top priority in my life, so I do not invest the time and energy to do it.
Over the last year I have found a renewed commitment to prayer. It’s still a struggle. There are some days when I don’t pray as much as I should…there are some days when I don’t pray at all. Yet, I am growing in this area of my journey. One of the practices that has helped me is praying the Lord’s Prayer on a regular basis, at least once a day. When I am really engaged in this relationship of prayer, I will pray the Lord’s Prayer 3-4 times a day. More than a ritual task that I am checking off my list, this prayer has become a framework for an ongoing conversation. This ancient prayer is helping me talk to God, and the conversation is shaping me spiritually. In the upcoming days, I hope to share some of the insights that I have been gaining as I have prayed this prayer for the ages.
But for today, let me encourage you to take a few quiet moments to pray this prayer:
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your Name.
May your kingdom come, and your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil;
for yours are the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.
I’m right there with you Chris. And I am not really task oriented so what does that mean for me?!? I can definitely relate to the busyness part. I read an article yesterday that you might find interesting and I think offers a suggestion about why prayer is a challenge. http://tinyurl.com/yh47v3t
@Chris Taylor Great article and so true. I just finished reading The Divine Commodity http://www.amazon.com/Divine-Commodity-Discovering-Consumer-Christianity/dp/0310283752 which talks about the consumer driven culture we live and has diluted our faith. He talks much about the church and our faith journey trying to/needing to entertain us to keep us engaged. We’ve traded transformation for entertainment and it is showing up in how we live our lives.