Just Saving Some Time

I once had someone suggest that if we prayed over the groceries when we bought them it would save us having to pray at every meal and we would still be “covered.” I think they may have missed the point when it comes to prayer, or any of the spiritual disciplines (fasting, meditation, confession, solitude and more).

Prayer isn’t about making sure that God hears our list of needs and requests nor is it is about checking off something from our “I really ought to pile.” The spiritual disciplines, at their core are all about being connected to Jesus. Richard Foster, in his excellent little book Celebration of Discipline put it like this:

“A farmer is helpless to grow grain; all he can do is provide the right conditions for the growing of grain. He cultivates the ground, he plants the seed, he waters the plants, and then the natural forces of the earth take over and up comes the grain...This is the way it is with the Spiritual Disciplines - they are a way of sowing to the Spirit... By themselves the Spiritual Disciplines can do nothing; they can only get us to the place where something can be done.”

Fortunately, God can work in us under any conditions, but I want to know him better and to do that I spend time. Time in His word, time in worship and time in prayer. I want to hear his voice and see Him at work in the world around me.

You can pray in your own words and also pray in the words that flow straight from the Bible, hymnal, or a prayer book. You can ask God for your deepest desires; and also pray that God would fulfill His will and not ours. In all of this, though you are spending time with the master and that is where the real value is for the disciple.

Thank you for lifting up requests on our behalf. God does answer your prayers. Even more, thank you for spending time with our Savior. Thank you for sowing to the Spirit, as Foster said. Thank you for your time in prayer.