Deurpost

Every good Christian prays, right? Every good Christian has an amazing prayer life, right? Well, obviously I cannot speak for anyone else, but I am just gonna say it: my prayer life sucks. This sounds really heavy and unholy, right? Maybe it is, but it is also the truth. Now get me straight. It’s not that I don’t want to. I would love to have a great prayer life. Does this mean I never pray? Definitely not. What I am talking about is that I rarely pray in the form of a dedicated time devoted to the LORD to just spend talking and listening to my heavenly Dad. I am just being brutally honest here…

This was what I would write a couple of weeks ago. Before I decided to change this. To repent (to use a lovely archaic word which is hardly ever used enough). I decided to change my prayer life. To actually have one. I had a plan. Now you have to know that I am a morning person. I love the morning. And I am very fortunate that my employer supports flexible working hours, and so for me this translates into starting at 6am (yes, that is 6 o’clock in the morning!). I love it! Now I am also fortunate to live close to my work and so for me to start at 6am I can get up at 5:30am and still be on time.

This was my plan: to get up half an hour earlier and use that time to pray. I figured that half an hour of prayer is a good start. I figured that there is not much difference between 5:00am and 5:30am. I figured that the house is still dark and in peace and quietness. And so this is a good plan. And it is. And I managed to stick with the plan for about a week in total. Why did I stop? I don’t know, for I felt really good about doing it (yes, I know, that’s not the point!). And the simple truth is that I am lazy. Every weekday my alarm is set to 5am. Every weekday I am awake at 5am. And every weekday I decide not to get up. And I am frustrated about it. But the truth of the matter is that I must persevere. Prayer is hard work. And I need to realize that God doesn’t want me to pray to be a good Christian and that so He can love me. That’s religion. God loves me. Period. Jesus said: “the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing” (John 5:19) and “I can do nothing on My own initiative” (John 5:30). And so I need to realize that I am dependent on God. And prayer is the primary means to know what the Father is doing, to follow His initiative. By not praying I am basically saying that I know better than God. That I don’t need God. That I am God.

And so I need to repent again. And I thank the Holy Spirit for steering my heart to repentance, and for showing me Scripture to get me going. Now I don’t know if my situation sounds familiar to you, so what I will do is just list the verses here and let Scripture speak for itself and let the Holy Spirit do the rest. Last thing I will say is that sleeping itself is not sin. That sleeping can actually honor God. But sleeping should be sanctified, redeemed. I’ll keep you posted on the progress.

“How long will you lie down, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber,a little folding of the hands to rest. Your poverty will come in like a vagabond and your need like an armed man.” (Proverbs 6:9-11)

“He who gathers in summer is a son who acts wisely, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who acts shamefully” (Proverbs 10:5)

“Laziness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle man will suffer hunger” (Proverbs 19:15)

“Do not love sleep, or you will become poor; open your eyes, and you will be satisfied with food” (Proverbs 20:13)

“But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. For this reason it says, ‘Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead,and Christ will shine on you.’ Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5:13-16)

“Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him” (James 1:12)

“And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about  perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:3-5)

“For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love” (2 Peter 1:4-7)

With our home group we started a book study on prayer. The book is called “Prayer, the Great Adventure” by David Jeremiah. We all read the first two chapters of the book in the last week, and yesterday was our first evening discussing what we read. I realize that blogging my thoughts on the book may not make much sense if you have not read the book, but I figure that God is smarter than that, and that it may serve as some encouragement to know that not everybody has the amazing prayer life that everybody is talking about. It’s always the other guy, right?

Three words come to mind when reading chapters one and two: conviction, encouraging, and more!

Let me start with the introduction. It was encouraging to read that “prayer is not a normal activity”. Good, because that’s how I always feel about it. Prayer is something extraordinary. He continues saying that “prayer is everything; a duty as well as a privilege; a right as well as a responsibility”. I felt convicted here. It sounds stupid, but I don’t think I consciously realize that God is holy and I am not. This sense of awe of approaching the definition of holiness. Yet also realizing that He is my father and he wants to talk to me. “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). I also hardly use prayer as a first line of defense. Again, conviction.

I think I had the most problems with chapter one. I get what he’s trying to say, but it sometimes sounds too simple. Yes, it’s encouraging to read Matthew 7:7-11 and read that if we ask Him He gives us what is good for us. I believe this (I think), but it sounds too simple. Too “prosperity” religious, if we do not take into account that “praying in the name of Jesus is praying in accordance with His nature”. A huge difference!! What I do get from the Scripture is that Jesus tells us to have intensity and passion in prayer, and that God promises an answer if we diligently seek Him. And although it may not be the answer we are looking for, it is encouraging to know that God does answer. Question is though: do we (want to) hear the answer? What I did like in this chapter is that we should be persistent in prayer (without nagging or begging I would say) and his advice to ask God what you can accomplish in the meantime if it feels/seems that your prayer is not answered immediately. A great way to stay humble and keep your heart open and let God change you.

I really liked chapter two. I zoomed in a bit on two verses he mentioned. “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving” (Col. 4:2). The Greek word used here for “Devote yourselves” is “proskartereō” and means to “to be devoted, steadfastly attentive, persevere, constant readiness, be strong”. Wow, to be devoted to prayer means to be constant ready, to be steadfastly attentive. Prayer is hard work. I never considered prayer to be hard work. I mean, do you ever need to take a shower after you’re done praying because you sweat so much of the hard work? I don’t! The other verse is “Epaphras… always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God” (Col. 4:12). The Greek word for “laboring earnestly” is “agonizomai” meaning “to contend with adversaries, fight, to endeavour with strenuous zeal”. So it’s not only hard work, it’s a fight. The first thing that comes to my mind here is ultimate fighting (sorry, I am a guy). Now, I have never done it (thank God!), but I can imagine that going all out for ten rounds of three minutes each is hard work. The amount of hours of training and discipline that goes into this, to be able to actually stand a chance when entering the ring, must be enormous! I think I should start seeing prayer more like this. Yes, in its basic form it is just talking to my (holy) Father, but prayer is also a powerful weapon against the enemy, who “prowls around like a lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). I don’t feel ready at all to step into the ring, because I have never put in the hours of training and be disciplined to build up the stamina. The other thing I got from this chapter is the planning. We should plan our prayer. (Like he said, you don’t just go on vacation, you plan it). He talks about a time, a place, and a procedure. I think it’s a great idea to allocate some time to devote to God. Yes, we should pray without ceasing and can pray whenever we want, but I think it’s honoring to God to give Him some quality time too. I also like to think that giving more thought to planning prayer means to think ahead. Where do you want to go to? What do you want to achieve? It’s setting up a goal (something counter culture in Holland – setting goals). It’s also a way to get more insight if your prayers are answered and if you see progress (stamina) in your prayer life. I like this quote by Dwight Eisenhower who said: “plans are nothing, planning is everything”. To me that means: it’s ok to “talk the talk”, but without making a planning and actually start doing it, you will never “walk the walk”.

Anyways, these are some of my thoughts on what I’ve read so far. I am a morning person, and so what I am going to do (and possibly fail at although but I hope not!) is to allocate some time in the morning to devote to God. I heard this great thought the other day from Chuck Missler. He said: “When are sheep fed? In the morning.” We are His sheep, and we need His food. Best to get some in the morning. (Yes, my mom – like most moms – was right: breakfast is the most important meal of the day ;-)