Prayer - The Cross Purpose

Time Alone for God

David Mathis — Thu, 21 Mar 2024 03:33:00 +0000

The Ageless Habits of Jesus Christ

“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” —Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)

It’s a sweeping claim, but it might just be the kind of overstatement we need today to be awakened from our relentless stream of distractions and diversions. How hauntingly true might it be, that we are unable to sit quietly? Four hundred years after Pascal, life may be as hurried and anxious as it has ever been. The competition for our attention is ruthless. We not only hear one distracting Siren call after another, but an endless cacophony of voices barrages us all at once.

And yet, long before Pascal, Jesus himself modeled for us the very kind of habits and rhythms of life we need in any age. Even as God in human flesh, he prioritized time alone with his Father. Imagine what “good” he might otherwise have done with all those hours. But he chose again and again, in perfect wisdom and love, to give his first and best moments to seeking his Father’s face. And if Jesus, even Jesus, carved out such space in the demands of his human life, shouldn’t we all the more?

“How many of us have the presence of mind, and heart, to discern and prioritize prayer as Jesus did?”

We may have but glimpses of Jesus’s habits and personal spiritual practices in the Gospels, but what we do have is by no accident, and it is not scant. We know exactly what God means for us to know, in just the right detail — and we have far more about Jesus’s personal spiritual rhythms than we do about anyone else in Scripture. And the picture we have of Christ’s habits is not one that is foreign to our world and lives and experience. Rather, we find timeless and transcultural postures that can be replicated, and easily applied, by any follower of Jesus, anywhere in the world, at any time in history.

Retreat and Reenter

For two thousand years, the teachings of Christ have called his people into rhythms of retreating from the world and entering into it.

The healthy Christian life is neither wholly solitary nor wholly communal. We withdraw, like Jesus, to “a desolate place” to commune with God (Mark 1:35), and then return to the bustle of daily tasks and the needs of others. We carve out a season for spiritual respite, in some momentarily sacred space, to feed our souls, enjoying God there in the stillness. Then we enter back in, as light and bread, to a hungry, harassed, and helpless world (Matthew 9:36).

Quiet Times Without a Bible

Before rehearsing Jesus’s patterns in retreating for prayer and then reentering for ministry, we should observe the place of Scripture in his life.

Jesus did not have his own personal material copy of the Bible, like almost all of us do today. He heard what was read aloud in the synagogue, and what his mother sang, and he rehearsed what he had put to memory. And yet throughout his recorded ministry, we see evidence of a man utterly captivated by what is written in the text of Scripture. And like Christ, we will do well to make God’s own words, in the Bible, to be the leading edge of our own seeking to draw near to him.

At the very outset of his public ministry, Jesus retreated to the wilderness, and there, in the culminating temptations before the devil himself, he leaned on what is written (Matthew 4:4, 6–7, 10; Luke 4:4, 8, 10). Then returning from the wilderness, to his hometown of Nazareth, he stood up to read, took the scroll of Isaiah (61:1–2), and announced, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). Jesus identified John the Baptist as “he of whom it is written” (Matthew 11:10; Luke 7:27), and he cleared the temple of moneychangers on the grounds of what is written in Isaiah 56:7 (Matthew 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46). He rebuked the proud by quoting Scripture (Mark 7:6; Luke 20:17). At every step of the way to Calvary, over and over again, he knew everything would happen “as it is written” (see especially the Gospel of John, 6:31, 45; 8:17; 10:34; 12:14, 16; 15:25). “The Son of Man goes as it is written of him” (Mark 14:21), he said. “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished” (Luke 18:31).

“Solitude is an opportunity to open up our lives and souls to him for whom we were made.”

Even though Jesus didn’t have his own Bible to page through in his quiet times, let there be no confusion about the central place of God’s written word in his life. He lived by what was written. What an amazing opportunity we now have today, with Old and New Testaments in paper and ink (and with us, everywhere we go, on our phones), to daily give ourselves to the word of God.

How Often He Withdrew

For Christ, “the wilderness” or “desolate place” often became his momentarily sacred space. He regularly escaped the noise and frenzy of society to be alone with his Father, where he could give him his full attention.

After “his fame spread everywhere” (Mark 1:28), and “the whole city was gathered together at the door” (Mark 1:33), Jesus took a remarkable step. He slipped away the following morning to restore his soul in “secret converse” with his Father:

“Rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.” (Mark 1:35)

What a ministry opportunity he left behind, some might say. Surely some of us would have skipped or shortened our private disciplines to rush and bless the swelling masses. To be sure, other times would come (as we’ll see) when Jesus would delay his personal habits to meet immediate needs. But how many of us, in such a situation, would have the presence of mind, and heart, to discern and prioritize prayer as Jesus did?

Luke also makes it unmistakable that this pattern of retreat and reentry was part of the ongoing dynamic of Christ’s human life. Jesus “departed and went into a desolate place” (Luke 4:42) — not just once but regularly. “He would withdraw to desolate places and pray” (Luke 5:16).

So also Matthew. After the death of John the Baptist, Jesus “withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself” (Matthew 14:13). But even then, the crowds pursued him. He didn’t despise them (here he puts his desire to retreat on hold) but had compassion on them and healed their sick (Matthew 14:14). Then after feeding them, five thousand strong, he withdrew again to a quiet place. “After he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray” (Matthew 14:23).

Praying, Fasting, Teaching

What was written animated his life, and when he withdrew, he went to speak to his Father in prayer. At times, he went away by himself, to be alone (Matthew 14:23; Mark 6:46–47; John 6:15). “He went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God” (Luke 6:12). His disciples saw him leave to pray, and later return.

He also prayed with others. The disciples saw him model prayer at his baptism (Luke 3:21), and as he laid his hands on the children (Matthew 19:13), and when he drove out demons (Mark 9:29). He prayed with his men, and even when he prayed alone, his men might be nearby: “Now it happened that as he was praying alone, the disciples were with him” (Luke 9:18; also 11:1). He took Peter, John, and James “and went up on the mountain to pray” (Luke 9:28). On the night before he died, he said to Peter, “I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail” (Luke 22:32). All of John 17 is his prayer for his disciples, in their hearing. Then they went out from that upper room and saw him pray over and over in the garden (Matthew 26:36, 39, 42, 44). He not only modeled prayer, but instructed them in how to pray. “Pray then like this . . .” (Matthew 6:9–13).

And he not only assumed they would pray (Matthew 21:22; Mark 11:24–25; Luke 11:2) but commanded it (Matthew 24:20; 26:41; Mark 13:18; 14:38; Luke 21:36; 22:40, 46). “Pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). “Pray for those who abuse you” (Luke 6:28). “Pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest” (Matthew 9:38; Luke 10:2). Pray without show and without posturing (Matthew 6:5–7). He warned against those who “for a pretense make long prayers” (Mark 12:40; Luke 20:47). “He told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1).

“Christ himself modeled for us the very kind of habits and rhythms of life we need in any age.”

And to accompany prayer, he not only modeled fasting (Matthew 4:2), but assumed his men would fast as well (“when you fast,” not if, Matthew 6:16–18), and even promised they would (“then they will fast,” Matthew 9:15; Mark 2:20; Luke 5:35).

Come Away with Me

Jesus didn’t only retreat to be alone with God. He also taught his disciples to do the same (Mark 3:7; Luke 9:10). In Mark 6:31–32, he invites his men to join him, saying, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” Mark explains, “For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.”

So also, in the Gospel of John, Jesus, as his fame spread, retreated from more populated settings to invest in his men in more desolate, less distracting places (John 11:54). In his timeless Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught all his hearers, including us today, not only to give without show (Matthew 6:3–4), and fast without publicity (Matthew 6:17–18), but also to find our private place to seek our Father’s face: “When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:6).

And how today might our Father reward us any better than with more of himself through his Son?

Converse with God in the Quiet

In it all — in receiving his Father’s voice in Scripture, and praying alone (and with company), and at times, when faced with particularly pressing concerns, adding the tool of fasting — Jesus sought communion with his Father. His habits were not demonstrations of will and sheer discipline. His acts of receiving the word, and responding in prayer, were not ends in themselves. In these blessed means, he pursued the end of knowing and enjoying his Father. And so do we today.

We don’t retreat from life’s busyness and bustle as an end in itself. “To sit quietly in a room alone,” in Pascal’s words, is not an achievement but an instrument — an opportunity to open up our lives and souls to him for whom we were made. To know him and enjoy him.

David Mathis

David Mathis is executive editor for Desiring God and pastor at Cities Church. He is a husband, father of four, and author of A Little Theology of Exercise: Enjoying Christ in Body and Soul (2025). Read more about David.

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Four Prayers for Bible Reading

David Mathis — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 07:40:14 +0000

When we open our Bibles to read, we’re never alone. The Holy Spirit hovers over and in the words of God, ready to stir our hearts, illumine our minds, and redirect our lives, all for the glory of Christ (John 16:14). The Spirit is the X factor in Bible reading, making an otherwise ordinary routine supernatural — and making it utterly foolish to read and study without praying for our eyes, minds, and hearts.

Prayer is a conversation, but not one we start. God speaks first. His voice sounds in the Scriptures and climactically in the person and work of his Son. Then, wonder of all wonders, he stops, he stoops, he bends his ear to listen to us. Prayer is almost too good to be true. With our eyes on God’s words, he gives us his ear, too.

How then should we pray over our Bibles? Here are four verses you might pray as you open God’s word.

1. Psalm 119:18: Open My Eyes to Wonder

“Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law” (Psalm 119:18). We ask God to open our spiritual eyes to show us the glimpses of glory we cannot see by ourselves. Without his help, we are simply “natural” persons with natural eyes. “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand [see] them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

“Seeing they do not” was Jesus’s phrase for those who saw him and his teaching only with natural eyes, without the illumining work of the Spirit (Matthew 13:13). This is why Paul prays for Christians, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened” (Ephesians 1:17–18).

Join the psalmist in praying not just for the gift of spiritual sight, but for the gift of seeing wondrous things in God’s word. Wonder is a great antidote for wandering. Those who cultivate awe keep their hearts warm and soft, and resist the temptations to grow cold and fall away.

2. Luke 18:38: Have Mercy on Me

Pray, like the blind man begging by the roadside, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Luke 18:38). For as long as we are in this life, sin encumbers every encounter with God in his word. We fail friends and family daily — and even more, we fail God. So it is fitting to accompany our opening of God’s word with the humble, broken, poor plea of the redeemed: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13).

Bible reading is a daily prompt to own our failures, newly repent, and freshly cast ourselves on his grace all over again. Prayer is the path to staying fascinated with his grace and cultivating a spirit of true humility.

3. James 1:22: Make Me a Doer of Your Word

Pray that God, having opened your eyes to wonder and reminded you of the sufficiency of his grace, would produce genuine change in your life. Ask him to allow the seeds from Scripture to bear real, noticeable fruit in tangible acts of sacrificial love for others. “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22). You need not artificially capture one, specific point of application from every passage, but pray that his word would shape and inform and direct your practical living.

Ask that he would make you more manifestly loving, not less, because of the time invested alone in reading and studying his word.

4. Luke 24:45: Open My Eyes to Jesus

This is another way of praying that God would open our eyes to wonder, just with more specificity. The works of God stand as marvelous mountain ranges in the Bible, but the highest peak, and the most majestic vista, is the person and work of his Son.

As Jesus himself taught after his resurrection, he is the Bible’s closest thing to a skeleton key for unlocking the meaning of every text — every book, every plot twist, the whole story. First, “he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27), then he taught his disciples that “everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44). And in doing so, “he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45).

The great goal of Bible reading and study is this: knowing and enjoying Jesus. This is a taste now of heaven’s coming delights. “This is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). This gives direction, focus, and purpose to our study. “Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord” (Hosea 6:3). This forms great yearning and passion in our souls: “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8).

Keep both eyes peeled for Jesus. Until we see how the passage at hand relates to Jesus’s person and work, we haven’t yet finished the single most important aspect of our reading.

We are desperate for God’s ongoing help to see, and so we pray.

The post Four Prayers for Bible Reading first appeared on The Cross Purpose.

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Podcast – All about Praying | Meet Steve | New Equipment | S3E3

General Editor — Sun, 29 Oct 2023 15:09:15 +0000

The Lord has given us many prayers in Scripture so that we may know how to model our own prayers.

Listen to Mike, Ashok and our new host Steve discuss on the subject of prayer and how Christians can be more consistent in this spiritual discipline.

BOOK : Praying the Bible by Don Whitney

The post Podcast – All about Praying | Meet Steve | New Equipment | S3E3 first appeared on The Cross Purpose.

The post Podcast – All about Praying | Meet Steve | New Equipment | S3E3 appeared first on The Cross Purpose.

The Unexpected Answers of God

Jon Bloom — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 08:35:16 +0000

In John 16:23–24, Jesus makes a stunning, sweeping, glorious promise to us:

“In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”

So we ask the Father for things we long for because we want the full joy he offers us. And we don’t ask for trivial or fleshly things, because we know what the Apostle James says: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James 4:3). No, we pray for greater faith, love, holiness, wisdom, discernment, experience of God’s grace, boldness, and joy in God, while praying for less satisfaction with worldly things.

Unexpected Answers

Such longings and prayers are sincere, and God loves them and loves to answer them. But we do not know ourselves very well, or the depth or pervasiveness of our sin, or what it really requires of us in order to receive what we ask for. We can’t help but have unreal, romantic imaginations and expectations about what God’s answers to our prayers will be.

Therefore, we are often unprepared for the answers we receive from God. His answers frequently do not look at first like answers. They look like problems. They look like trouble. They look like loss, disappointment, affliction, conflict, sorrow, and increased selfishness. They cause deep soul wrestling and expose sins and doubts and fears. They are not what we expect, and we often do not see how they correspond to our prayers.

What Should We Expect?

If we ask God for greater, deeper love for him, what should we expect to receive? Answers that give us a greater awareness of our deep and pervasive sinful depravity, because those who are forgiven much, love much, but those who are forgiven little, love little (Luke 7:47).

If we ask God to help us love our neighbors as ourselves (Mark 12:31), what should we expect to receive? Answers that force us to give unexpected attention to a neighbor (whom we might not put in that category [Luke 10:29]), which are inconvenient and irritating.

If we ask for God’s nearness because we believe that it is good for us to be near God (Psalm 73:28), what should we expect to receive? Answers that break our hearts, for God is near to the brokenhearted (Psalm 34:18).

If we ask God to make us living sacrifices (Romans 12:1), what should we expect to receive? Answers that break and humble our hearts because the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit (Psalm 51:17).

If we ask God for a deeper experience of his grace, what should we expect to receive? Answers that oppose our pride and humble our hearts (James 4:6).

If we ask God for his kingdom to come (Matthew 6:10) in our own lives and in the world around us, what should we expect to receive? Answers that reveal our deep spiritual poverty, because the kingdom is given to the poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3).

If we ask God to satisfy us with himself so that we aren’t so easily satisfied by the world’s mud puddles, what should we expect to receive? Answers that cause us to be increasingly aware of the evil and suffering and injustices of the world, because those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied (Matthew 5:6).

If we ask God for greater wisdom and discernment, what should we expect to receive? A steady stream of mind-bending, confusing answers that are difficult to understand and work through, because our powers of discernment are trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil (Hebrews 5:14).

If we ask God to “increase our faith” (Luke 17:5), what should we expect to receive? To be repeatedly put into situations where we discover that our perceptions are not trustworthy so that we are forced to trust Christ’s promises, “for we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).

If we ask God to help us “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord” (Colossians 1:10), what should we expect to receive? Answers that require more humility, gentleness, patience, and bearing with one another in love (Ephesians 4:2) than we thought possible. Answers that might result in destitution, affliction, and mistreatment, the common lot of many saints throughout history “of whom the world was not worthy” (Hebrews 11:38).

If we ask God to help us stop serving money so that we can serve him more wholeheartedly, what should we expect to receive? An uncomfortable amount of opportunities to give money away, expenses that deplete reserves we’ve been stashing away, maybe even a job loss — answers that push us to us despise (ignore, turn away from, release) money and cling to God (Luke 16:13).

If we ask for our joy to be made more full (John 16:24), to experience more happiness in God, what should we expect to receive? Answers that cause earthly joys we once thought gain to become empty, hollow, and loss and that push us to search for the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:8).

Expect the Unexpected

When God begins to answer our prayers, we often find his answers disorienting. Circumstances might take unexpected courses, health might deteriorate, painful relational dynamics might develop, financial difficulties might occur, and spiritual and emotional struggles might emerge that seem unconnected. We can feel like we’re going backward because we are not clearly moving forward. We cry out in painful confusion and exasperation (Psalm 13:1; Job 30:20) when what’s really happening is that God is answering our prayers. We just expected the answer to look and feel different.

This being true, we might be tempted to not even ask God for such things. I mean, who wants unpleasant answers to prayers for joy?

Don’t be deceived into this short-sighted thinking. Remember Jesus’s promise: “Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (John 16:24). If the path to full joy is sometimes hard, and Jesus tells us it is (John 16:33; Matthew 7:14), that is no reason not to take it! What do you want? Low, shallow, thin joys? No! Go for full joy! And remember what the writer of Hebrews tells us:

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:11)

With regard to God’s answers to prayer, expect the unexpected. Most of the greatest gifts and deepest joys that God gives us come wrapped in painful packages.

The post The Unexpected Answers of God first appeared on The Cross Purpose.

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Fighting Prayerlessness

Michael Teddy — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 08:59:25 +0000

Have you ever found it difficult to sustain your daily commitment to pray? I know I have, and I also know, from the majority of Christians that I have spoken to, that I’m far from alone in this struggle. We go through these bouts of prayer-less days till one day we find ourselves stressed out by everything in life and wondering what went wrong. It baffles me how we are so prone to the sin of prayerlessness, and it always starts with that subtle slip, that excuse that lacks conviction, that fatal postponing to ‘tomorrow’. So then, what can we do? How do we strive to keep a consistent prayer life?

By first identifying the two most common reasons, or for the lack of a better word – excuses we give when we fail to pray.

Laziness is the fountainhead of most of our excuses. Not only are we prone to be lazy, we are keen to justify it. Laziness offers for us the option to relax and be free of worries for some time, while we distract ourselves from our many responsibilities. It tempts us to take a break that, at the time, seems justifiable. I’m sure that most of us can relate to this. But the truth is, all that really happens is that your work load piles up, and you end up wasting that God-given time – almost always on useless things. Now, there is a time and place for godly rest and retreat which is a responsibility in itself. However, with laziness, what seems a good gift of rest ends up being a curse that stresses us out even more in the end, and in today’s world, distraction is often a luxury we must fight to resist, almost daily. I like how the renowned Christian blogger and author, Tim Challies sums it up in his book on productivity, “…it could be that today’s world offers more ways of lazily procrastinating than ever before. When you ought to be working on your computer, you are only ever one or two clicks away from checking out your friends on Facebook or welcoming a few minutes of mindless entertainment on YouTube. Text messages provide a welcome distraction from deep thinking, and binge watching the latest series on Netflix can set you back a week. You are surrounded by temptations to laziness and may succumb far more often than you think. It could be that laziness is what stands between you and true productivity.”**¹

Busyness – Now, wait a minute. Isn’t this a justifiable excuse? Well, no. You see, the fundamental question that needs to be answered is whether we would have the audacity to stand before God, on the day of judgment, when He comes in all His glory, and say, “I was too busy for you”. My friends, God created us for His glory and the primary purpose of our lives is that. In fact, it is the only purpose that matters. When we allow other things to keep us busy from doing the one thing that matters, it isn’t justifiable. My mom is always sharp to pick up on the status of my prayer life, and whenever I give the excuse of being busy, she says, “Busy with what? Your job? It doesn’t matter if they fire you, you must not fail to pray.” It was Martin Luther who said, “I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” Three hours? I’m sure he would have had more work to do than a majority of us today. Busyness is the trickier of the two reasons we fail to pray, and probably has the greater danger of being deceptive because we often believe that it is a justifiable excuse when it simply isn’t. It is our unfaithfulness to prioritise what matters most. Borrowing from Challies again, “Busyness may make you feel good about yourself and give the illusion of getting things done, but it probably just means that you are directing too little attention in too many directions, that you are prioritizing all the wrong things, and that your productivity is suffering.”**²

Keeping in the mind these two categories of why we fall prey to the temptation of postponing what matters most – our daily time of prayer and devotion to the Lord our God – let me share with you a few practical things that I’ve started applying in my daily routine to help keep my mind focussed in order to fulfil my commitment to pray.

DISCIPLINES TO HELP

I want to first remind you that nothing in the Christian faith is producible through a formula. None of those ‘7 steps to this’ or ‘3 steps to that’ will effect lasting change in us. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ (Romans 10:17). We are the workmanship of Christ (Ephesians 2:10) and are changed only by the powerful work of His Spirit in our lives (Philippians 2:13 & Zachariah 4:6). However, these step-by-step disciplines or formulas are meant to help facilitate a joyful and diligent effort on our part to pursue and obey God. So, let us keep in mind that apart from Him we can do nothing (John 15:5). Having said that, here are 7 disciplines that I follow that may encourage and help you in your own walk with God.

Aim for the morning
I know that people prefer to schedule their prayer time as it best suits their daily activities. Some prefer to pray in the night and others in the morning. One discipline here that has helped me is to not schedule my prayer time based on all that I have to get done in a day but instead, schedule all of those other things based on the time I’ve set to pray. For me, that’s prioritising prayer. I’ve often heard people either say that praying in the morning is not possible with all that confusion of morning chores and duties, or that praying in the night doesn’t happen because they’re often too tired after a long day at work. I’ve even said it myself. I believe that this happens because we’ve got our priories upside down. Whether we decide to pray in the morning or in the night, we must spend that time with the Lord and schedule all the other activities accordingly. I always recommend that early morning time slot, because it really makes a difference when you start the day in prayer. Set it as the first thing to do in the day. In my own home, I spend the morning in personal prayer, and the night is the time for our family devotion. I like to follow David’s footsteps,*“In the morning, O Lord, You will hear my voice; In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.” (Psalm 5:3)*If my daily routines are secondary to my first priority of prayer, then it makes most sense to me that it be the first thing I do in a day.
Avoid all electronic devices
Many people, especially in my generation, have gotten accustomed to using the Bibles on their hand-held devices. This is not a bad thing in itself but, in this situation, it brings with it the plethora of distractions that almost always succeed in kidnapping your attention. I find myself so often succumb to the meaningless gesture of opening my browser and logging in to Facebook every time I open my laptop. I often have no reason to be there but it’s almost like muscle memory. My fingers are just so used to going there whether on my laptop or on my mobile. I have found it just the wiser to keep away from all electronic devices to avoid the hassle of having to fight the temptations that it brings to keep me from praying.
Freshen up
If I succeed in overcoming the first two obstacles, I am then taunted by a sudden, insatiable urge to fall asleep. I open my Bible, begin reading and half-way through, I find myself slowly dozing off to fourth heaven. By the time I’m done, I would have spent a whole sleepy hour on what I could have normally done in 10 minutes. So, I make it a point to brush my teeth, wash my face and maybe even have a cup of coffee on my table. Sometimes I still find myself a little drowsy, in which case I walk up and down my study as I pour my heart out to the Lord.
Look to the sky
Now, this may sound a little weird at first, but I assure you that this is a discipline that spurs our desire to pray. I get this from Psalm 19:1-2; *The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge.*This means that every day when we look at the sky, it is speaking to us and imparting knowledge to us of the glory of God. When we look at the beauty of God’s creation, it reminds us that He is indeed glorious beyond all that we can imagine. So, I use Psalm 19 and look to the sky and it reminds me of God’s glory and this helps me pray eagerly.
Read the bible and pray In the end, there is no escaping the ‘work’ involved in opening your bible, reading and meditating on it, listening to what He teaches you and spending that time praying and laying your cares one by one at His feet. I know that there are some who would succeed in keeping a consistent time of prayer but would hardly manage to do any praying. Remember, this is not something we do out of duty. It isn’t a formula to Christian living. It is a time of deep and intimate communion with God and that is no ritual, it is the great privilege of His children.
Sing a song
We have so many precious prayers that we can read in the book of Psalms and they are all songs offered to the Lord in prayer. Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting (Psalm 147:1). He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; (Psalm 40:3). I find it very gratifying to sing a song of praise. For me, it enhances and ‘completes’ the whole experience of spending time with Him.
Memorise
We all know of the famous passage in scripture where Jesus was taken by the enemy to be tempted. Every time the enemy tempted Him, He used the scripture to resist him. We know this story. It has been taught to most of us since our Sunday-school days. But is it not amazing that very few of us know the Bible or use it well enough to fight our own temptations with it. We rarely follow the example that Christ showed us. I believe that we, as faithful servants, must follow our master and make it a point to memorise verses in the Bible that would help us fight the lure of the enemy. This memorisation especially helps in keeping our daily devotion because whenever we are tempted to look away, the word of God itself would rise to our defence by being on the tip of our tongue reminding us and encouraging us to persevere. The Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Truth, who guides us into all truth, will He not surely help us in this effort, to hold fast to God’s word, and be effective stewards of His grace?

BOOK SUGGESTIONS

Do More Better: A Practical Guide to Productivity – Tim Challies

Crazy Busy – Kevin DeYoung *scripture quotations have been taken from the NASB and the ESV versions [1] Challies, Tim. Do More Better: A Practical Guide to Productivity (pp. 20-21). Challies. Kindle Edition. [2] Challies, Tim. Do More Better: A Practical Guide to Productivity (p. 21). Challies. Kindle Edition.

Tim Challies’ Blog – https://www.challies.com/

The post Fighting Prayerlessness first appeared on The Cross Purpose.

The post Fighting Prayerlessness appeared first on The Cross Purpose.