Throughout the history of the church, believers have set aside specific times to pray. Often prayer has been described as a discipline. That may sound a little strange if you’ve been following our podcast from the beginning because we’ve been emphasizing the natural and easy-going nature of prayer. But there’s more to the picture than that.
Just like in some of our other relationships, there are times when we plan to sit down and talk. Sometimes you have something specific you need to talk to someone about, so you schedule a coffee or a lunch. Or think of a husband and wife who have a regular Sunday night meeting or Friday night date to catch up and connect. Just because you’ve planned it doesn’t mean that it’s not legitimate, right? And in fact, sometimes because it’s planned you can feel freer during that time, having looked forward to it all week.
In the same way, prayer can be deliberate; it can be a discipline. We can plan to pray about important things, plan certain times to pray every week or every day. If we need to be deliberate in maintaining our relationships with our spouse or our kids or our friends, so too with God. Even Jesus knew this. Before he chose his disciples, he spent the whole night in prayer. And he often would go out early in the morning to get away from everyone to pray. He planned times to be alone with his heavenly Father. How much more do we need to do the same?
Pray with me. Father, thank you for hearing our prayers and welcoming us into your family. Would you please show us some of the things that we need to pray about—things we need to plan to pray about? And would you help us to have the discipline to follow through. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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