Too Busy to Pray?

Too Busy to Pray?

A prophet comes, a prophet goes. A man or woman of God appears then s/he goes away when his/her time is spent. Even while alive, these men and women of God cannot be available for us all the time; nobody is, not even your spouse could be there with you without break, without going to work or not having to leave you to do stuff. God is the only person we have all the time; through the Holy Spirit we have accessibility to Him anytime, anywhere. That is why Eph. 6: 18 makes sense: .

“Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;”

This is the reason that our excuses to be so choked up with daily chores that we don’t have time to pray don’t hold water. Yes, I know what it means to be so busy you wish the day can be elongated beyond twenty-four hours or that you can be in different places at one time. However, we only need to apply wisdom to our prayer lives. For example, it is a good habit to tie prayers to some of our activities like praying for your spouse every time you have your bathe, worship God every time you drive to and from work, pray for soul winning every time you cook in the kitchen, etc. Well, you must be able to pray meditatively if taking the bus, train or in the public place, otherwise, you become a Pharisee!

I taught on this in a church in Lagos, Nigeria year 2000 and during question time a brother got angry with me because a big man of God had taught them in that church that we can only pray to God in our closets and that “arrow” prayers (praying while doing other things) are no prayers at all. My response to it was that I believe if the man of God finds himself in the plane, God forbid, that the pilot announced that he is losing control and that the ­engines stopped working, that he will pray the hottest prayers of his life even though he isn’t in his closet. Smith Wigglesworth was quoted to have said that he never prayed beyond fifteen minutes at a time but that it never took him fifteen minutes before he would pray again. This doesn’t however, subtract from praying in our closet as this is seen all through the Bible.

We must learn to always be alert in the spirit, to be in prayer mood all the time. In fact, it is a good practice to sing to God all the time possible, to bless His name and lift Him up both in songs and in words. How do you see tying our prayers to happenings around us, e.g. when you see a family quarrelling, then you pray against it in your own family; when you see someone evangelizing, then you pray that God should touch the soul and save him; etc.

Friend, we must respond properly to the challenges of the 21^st century. The time has come for Believers to train themselves to be tuned to God 24/7. The Lord knows about our challenges on time but gratefully, the Holy Spirit lives in us and is ever ready for us. Brothers and sisters let us pray