Prayer life

Today, as we sit in a seminary classroom, our teacher asks us, "Tell me about your prayer life." The room is silent. He asks again, "I want you to tell me what your prayer life is like. Don't tell me 'here or there' or 'when I feel like it', but I want you to tell me when and how you pray. If you don't learn how to pray here, of all places, you may never learn." All I could think was, "How sad. A room full of future workers in ministry, and no one can talk about their prayer life. Least of all me."

We must be intentional about our prayer life. Make no mistake about that. It isn't about legalism or being better than someone (or being a good person) or being more holy. Prayer is about our relationship. It is about our connection with God.

Why are we not intentional about prayer or the disciplines of faith? So often in my life I just haphazardly throw together disciplines, if at all. I don't have a plan!! I just do it randomly. I could tell you that I'm just allowing the Spirit to lead me, but the fact of the matter is there is no intentionality. I just wing it and pray that it will prepare my heart for God to minister to me. I think that we all should be more disciplined in our disciplines. If we don't have any kind of plan to pray, we won't.

The last thing I would say is, why wait until a season that isn't busy to start? Every season is busy!! Just commit, today, to begin creating and protecting that space to pray. 15 minutes. 10 minutes. 5 minutes. You won't be good at it right away. You may feel that you've wasted your time. Pray to want to pray. Pray to be good at prayer. God honors that. Who knows? You may work up to 15 minutes a day after time. You may work up to 30 minutes a day. It doesn't make you a good person; it prepares your heart for God to work in your life.