Too Busy to or Too Busy not to Pray?

1 Thessalonians 5:17 “Pray continually.”

Most of us are too busy to pray, but our excuses illustrate our fundamental misunderstanding of the primacy of prayer. If we grasp the importance of prayer, it will undergird our very existence and act as the engine-room for all our activities, such that we will be too busy not to pray, as the title of a book on the subject suggests. R.A.Torrey gave this critique: “We have a great deal of activity but we accomplish little; many services but few conversions; much machinery but few results.”

Jesus placed prayer right at the heart of his ministry. He modeled the life of prayer, and exhorted his disciples to follow his example. As a matter of fact, he never taught his disciples to preach, but he made sure they were well taught in the school of prayer. We need to access power from God before we can wield power with men. Hence speaking with God will come before speaking with men. It’s said that Francis of Assisi spent 75% of his active hours in prayer and 25% in preaching and apostolic service; yet although he’s primarily remembered nowadays for the impact of his preaching, the latter was only the result of many hours spent in the Father’s presence, before being sent out empowered, envisioned, energized and equipped by the Holy Spirit.

It’s sometimes hard to set aside a chunk of time every day for dedicated prayer and Bible study, but I want to encourage you that it’s not so hard to ‘pray continually’, as Paul exhorted the Thessalonians. It just means being in constant communion with God. So, for example, you could put up post-it notes of verses on your bathroom mirror, on the fridge door, on the dashboard of the car, as constant reminders to talk to God throughout the day. It works. Never say you’re too busy to pray. It’s not true, and you’ll be the loser for it.

Lord, I choose to cultivate a habit of praying continually today. Amen!