What if I were to tell you that God wants you to pray?
Pretty easy to do, right? You can handle that. In fact, I’m willing to bet that most Christ-followers have no problem with praying. It’s a pretty basic action that every Christian learns early on in their walk of Faith.
Well, what if I told you that God wants you to pray continually?
If you were like me when I first heard that, you’re probably thinking, “Kathy, you’re insane! How in the world am I supposed to pray continually?”
I know, right? I was in the same boat. Just the logistics of such a command was a nightmare to think about. I mean, if I did nothing but pray then nothing else in my life would get done. But here’s the kicker.
While it’s true that I can’t spend all my time on my knees, it is entirely possible to spend all my time praying. Why? Because prayer is not an action, it’s an attitude. That’s right, an attitude. Finally! I can have an attitude and get away with it!
“So how can I get this attitude?” you might be asking. Well, I’m so glad you asked.
See, this attitude of prayer is built by admitting that I need God, at all times and in all ways. I also have to realize that God is always with me, He’s not locked up in a building or a prayer closet, He’s by my side twenty-four seven. And finally, I have to determine in my heart that I am going to obey whatever He says, whenever He says it.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that I don’t have those dedicated times to prayer. I need to set aside blocks of time to pray. I do. A prayerful attitude is not a substitute for regular times of prayer, but, it should be an outgrowth of those times.
That means when I’m busy, running errands or just living life, and I feel that little nudge on my heart to pray for someone or something, I don’t rely on trying to remember to pray during my regular prayer times. I’ve tried that. It doesn’t work. Nine times out of ten, I forget that prayer need.
You see, a prayerful attitude is allowing God to work through those frequent, spontaneous, short prayers that pop up during my everyday life. It’s a natural outgrowth of life spent in prayer. So when God tells me in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to “pray continually” I can say, “No problem God, I’ve got this.”
And that, my friends, is an attitude worth having.