August 13, 2021

How is your “prayer life”? Please don’t ask me that question. I am sorely lacking. I am constantly rushing from one thing to another in my life and in doing so, I am hurriedly submitting my prayers to God on my way. Now, the Bible does say to “Pray ceaselessly” so praying while I am driving, walking, getting ready to leave the house, etc. are legitimate prayer times. BUT are they “adequate”? I’m finding for me they are not. I am rushing to ask a vague, even though serious request much of the time. I think back on my parental relationship with my kids and think, how do I feel when they are so busy the only time they call is to ask for something, (usually babysitting which is awesome), but I have to admit, that I miss them when I don’t see them for a few weeks. Or all I get is that quick phone call to ask a request. Sometimes my feelings get hurt, after all, I gave birth to these guys, fed them, clothed them, raised them to be decent humans. Don’t I deserve more? More time, more consideration? Maybe a little praise now & then?
So this is where I hear that calm, sweet voice in the back of my head. “Shirlene, I understand! Maybe you could sit down and we could really chat one of these days. I am ALWAYS here waiting for you. You could share your feelings about what is going on in your life and ask for my help.”
But Lord, there is just SO much! SO much to do, so much on my prayer list…. And I hear Him say, “well, no better time than the present to get started on that!”

This is an ongoing problem with me, I am easily distracted, and not very disciplined. So I have some tricks I am going to try. First, I am going to try to make this a habit every day, it doesn’t have to take more than a few minutes, at least not EVERY day. I can see from the length of my list I may have some longer days coming. Second, I am going to write down my requests, for a couple of reasons. It keeps you organized, you won’t forget and IF you write them down, it makes it easier to go back and see where God has answered them. Third, I am going to be specific. MY biggest reason for that is it is faith building. When it’s specific, you will see God’s answer and realize that He did answer that prayer, not just some “maybe it was God or maybe just coincidence.”.
I don’t know about you, but most of us have family that are not ready. Jesus could come back any moment, He could call anyone home at any moment. These are my biggest prayer concerns. I will take my list and put it in my Bible. I also write these names on a piece of paper and lay them under my cross. Literally leaving them at the foot of cross. Instead of the blanket prayer, “please be sure all my loved ones are in heaven someday”…. I am going to say, “Lord, I pray that ________ will come to know you and be saved and give his life to you.”
I know some of these prayers won’t happen overnight. But that’s exactly why I want to write them down. When you get to see God answer them, it is so much fun to see Him at work.

Lord, Thank you for your grace when we are not the children that we should be. In spite of the incredible things you do in our lives, we are ungrateful, and selfish with our time. Help us to be better. Thank you that you have made our conversations with you so easy. All we have to do is call your name and you are there!
In Christ’s name, Amen.