In God's Presence

I was stopped in my proverbial tracks the other day by a post on Twitter.  It said, "You can't be in prayer at all times unless you are in prayer at particular times."

Hold on!  That is the great cop out; the universal excuse; the ultimate free pass.

Being spiritually disciplined is an important part of our growth as human beings into what God intends for us to be.  I have spent seasons of my life where I diligently engage in regular prayer, searching the Holy Scriptures, holy conferencing, collective worship and fasting (though this is the toughest one for me). But as is the nature of seasons, they pass.  My fervor for the spiritual disciplines begins to wane and pretty soon I am making excuses like "I am always in an attitude of prayer," and other nonsense excuses like that.  Since the only one we need to account to for our actions is God and God already knows the lies we are telling ourselves we might as well just stop the excuse making and get to focusing on our relationship to the God that loves us and wants the best for us.  

We need to establish for ourselves a Rule of Life. This is something that we can and will commit to on a regular basis, be it daily or weekly to nurture our relationship with our God.  Let's start with time spent with God in prayer, intentional, regular time devoted to being in God's presence.  I propose three times a day.  When you wake in the morning, just before you lie down at night are good times to start because there is little modification to your schedule necessary.  I have created a tool for my self.  It is a string of wooden discs divided in three sections by knots. I start with the Lord's Prayer then  I pray the "Jesus Prayer" for each disc as a way of occupying the part of my mind that likes to distract me from resting peacefully in God's presence.  At each of the knots I praise God a recitation of the "Glory Be." When I complete the circuit of discs I again pray the Lord's prayer all the while keeping my heart, mind and spirit open to God's Leading.

A prayer tool of my own making. 

I mentioned a schedule of three times per day.  I suggest that the third time of prayer be just before or after the mid-day meal and that it would be in a fellowship people praying alongside of you.  I will be praying everyday at the church between 11:30 am and 11:45 am.  Join me.

It's when we find a rhythm of regular prayer that it eventually will become possible to also pray at all times and always know the presence of The Shepherd.