Prayer!

by Deacon James Corder

Too Busy to Pray!

"I'm too busy to pray. I don't know how people can find time to pray! My schedule is so busy, I'm lucky if I can find the time to eat meals, let alone say a prayer or two throughout the day." It's something we've all said, or at least thought, before. But maybe it's time to change all that.

Most of us lead very busy lives. We would pray if it were part of our daily schedule. Many times we intend to pray, but at the end of the day too much has happened. We lay in bed at night trying to pray -- but end up falling asleep.

Life And Faith Are About Ritual

What we do each day, for the most part, is basically the same -- a habitual sequence of activity. Even if our schedule changes a little, our routine stays pretty much unchanged. We could call this our ritual! Our ritual, once created, keeps the things important to us part of our everyday schedule. To brush our teeth is important; therefore (hopefully) it is part of the morning ritual.

Taking time to reflect on our ritual is important to our faith and spirituality. It could also be important to our health. If exercise is essential, the only way it will happen is if we formalize it and make it a part of the ritual of our daily living. If we believe prayer is important, then it too must be an ingredient in our daily living.

If you have ever tried to add something to you morning schedule, then you know how it works. For a couple of days it happens, but then, if you are not committed, this activity quickly loses its place in your schedule. It fails to become a part of your ritual, and ritual is what provides us with the ability to maintain what is important to our daily living.

Ritual Can Be Changed

Imagine getting up tomorrow and not knowing what to do from the time you get out of bed until you go to bed at night. Your life would be in complete chaos! It might take you three or four hours to get ready to go to work or school. You would feel completely out of control and I'm sure the day would seem very bizarre. Imagining that should help illustrate what ritual does for us.

Instead of living in such chaos, why not sit down and create a schedule for tomorrow. Start by making a complete schedule of all the things you currently do. Then go through and remove the things that are superfluous and take a lot of your time and energy. The only activities left should be those things that are essential to living your life -- and there should be a bit of time left over. Now take this opportunity to add the things you think are important but that you are not currently doing. With this revised schedule, is there room in your day to add prayer?

What Is Prayer?

There are three different types of prayer: Petition, Thanksgiving, and Praise.

The first type of prayer is to pray for our needs. We call those Petition Prayers. This is when we ask God to help us with our daily living or things that are weighing on our minds. Basically, we are asking God to intervene in our lives. This is an opportunity for us to try to distinguish between what we need and what we really just want.

Another type of prayer is Thanksgiving. What are the things in our lives that we are thankful for? Are we thankful for our family, friends, education, job, or all of the little blessings we receive? This is a means of reflecting on the good things in our lives. Doing this often can create a thankful heart.

The final type of prayer is giving Praise. To simply stop and think of who God is and to reflect on how awesome our God is to us. To speak or sing praises to God is important in reminding us of our own love for God.

Don't Give Up

Some people are able to pray in the morning, some people are better at nighttime prayer. Yet many of people find even those times difficult. But just to add a couple of minutes of prayer -- to give thanks, ask for prayers of petition, and give God praises -- can help us to change our lives. If you pray three times a day, you can use one of the three types each time and thus give focus to your prayer.

Try to pray while driving. It is much safer then using the cell phone and probably will have much better results. This can be done by listening to music, or making up prayers. Use your words and make up your own prayers. Be creative in how you pray, or simply pray the "old standbys" like the Our Father or Hail Mary.

And don't confine your prayer to the traditional places and times. Think about trying to pray in a variety of situations. This might include prayer during exercise, while checking e-mail (internet scripture or reflections of the day), and before or after meals. But don't limit yourself to these suggestions, either. Think of your own unique time and way to pray.

Life can be very hectic. This breakneck pace is a great reason to try even harder to incorporate prayer into the habit of everyday life. Integrate time to pray into your schedule -- make it part of your ritual -- and let prayer make a difference in your life.

Life Applications:

What are the set routines that you follow every day?
When and how do you pray?
What can you do to make more time for prayer?

Copyright 2002 by Deacon James Corder
All rights reserved.