Keep Asking

What keeps me from praying regularly?

The sermon today was from Ephesians 1:15-23, and the whole service was dedicated to the theme of prayer. Judi and I went forward for prayer at the end of the service. I joined in on a men's bible study and the group leader shared with me how he was converted as a result of many peoples' prayers, and how he had a chance to meet with some of them after his conversion. The Daily Bread reading today was on prayer; “spontaneity often flows from discipline”. When God wants your attention; He is not stingy with clues.

Ephesians 1:17 states that Paul “keeps asking”. Keep asking. Regularly. Persistently. Spontaneously; as a result of making prayer a discipline. Tiger Woods can play golf spontaneously, Wayne Gretzky played hockey spontaneously, Michael Jordan played basketball spontaneously. I can say my prayers should be spontaneous – but I certainly need to make prayer a daily, hourly discipline before I can expect spontaneity. Tiger, Wayne and Michael spent a lot of time in disciplined practice to be able to be spontaneous.

Verse 19 tells of God's “incomparable power”. When we were invited to come forward for prayer, I didn't want to say to God; “thanks, but – you've already done so much for me”. Gods incomparable power can do so much more. I don't want to limit God's blessing on us.

On our wedding day, Judi was calm – right up until the point that she started walking down the aisle. Then she started crying. When Judi and I went forward this morning; same calmness – right up until ... Pastor Garth came over to pray with us, and we were all crying. Then Pastor Rob and his wife Beth came over as well. I thanked God for blessing us so richly; for pastors with such tender, loving hearts; for so many people praying for us; and for that moment – just to be able to stand and pray and have a tangible expression of God's love. And I stopped crying, and felt amazing peace.

In the men's bible study, we are to be studying Job. Job. That almost scared me off. I didn't want to be studying Job. I didn't want to gain an understanding of a man who lost everything. But I went, and today – we didn't study Job. The regular group leader had to be away, so we watched a DVD and had some discussion. The DVD was on R.E.A.L. men. The R stood for Reject Passivity. So many of us men are passive; we don't act when we should. And that extends to our prayer life – we don't take action to discipline ourselves and make prayer a regular part of our lives. I can certainly relate to all of that; I don't pray as often as I want.

I was at Emmaus training on Saturday, and one of the speakers while we were previewing talks related our justification to our marriage ceremony. Just as learning to be good husbands takes time, our sanctification takes time. Just as a good marriage takes communication, our sanctification takes communication – prayer! The way I treat communication with God; I'm so glad He never considers asking for a divorce.

Thank you to every one who is praying for us.