In Matthew 6:6 Jesus says, "6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."
So, most of us know this, a quiet room undisturbed. In the NT, a lot of people went onto the rooftops to pray because they could get away from noise and busyness going on in the house. So, when we start to rock prayer with our heavenly Father, we gotta eliminate distractions( this meaning aside from your short little prayers during your day). I, as I'm sure you, have found hard to pray effictively when you got things going on around you. We have to be able to pull our entire selves together. Many times, our body can be there but our minds are wondering bout who knows what. Some emotion might still be riding you and you just carry into prayer. So, let the Lord calm your heart. Isaiah 26:3 says, "3 You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you."
The Hebrew word for peace as you know is "shalom", which means more than enough. It means prosperity. Everything we need is provided in God, so we don't have to be distracted by worry when we pray. This first step to prayer might take ten minutes, thirty minutes, or whatever time you need. There have been stories written about folk that have prayed in the forest for ten hours, and spent the first two or three just walking in order to get rid of distracting thoughts. So, whatever time you need, take it. I, myself, have never prayed more than fifty minutes at one time, so that is amazing to me.
But, regardless of your time spent, when you come before the Lord, in whatever place you choose, get quiet and listen to nothing but God. A lot of times in my life I have found that God is trying to tell me things if I will just shut up, plain and simple. If we let our hearts be restful in that quiet place. Too often I have found myself rushing into the process of praying, but Psalms 46:10 says, "Be still, and know that I am God." In this sense, prayer is us expressing our dependency upon God for all things.
If you are trying to pray, but your spirit, mind, body, and emotions are separated, then you are not one. You will be unable to pray God's will with the singleness of purpose. Silence helps bring you into a unity of heart and purpose with yourself and God.
trying to die to myself,
-tmart
4 comments:
you've prayed for 50 minutes straight...i'm impressed and apparently lacking big time in that category. 15 tops for me probably. 10 hours is un-imaginable....
Hey guys i am freddy sandoval, just wanted to mention that this blog is unbelievable and that i love it. reading this post was like you guys were actually talking to me because i struggle with this quite a bit. i had a really nice conversation about this with Terry yesterday before the game and it sounds like a lot of people struggle with focusing and concentrating in prayer. for me it is a constant battle to keep myself praying without my mind wondering about other things. I think it is all just a matter of commitment and being able to give 5-10-15 minutes of your day to our savior. to give him some alone time or quiet time so there are no distractions! :)
yea waino 10 hours is unimaginable for me as well, now dont think i rock 50 min everyday, that day was during a time when my prayer life was really developing and i had mass amounts of things to bring before the Lord. at the time i had a serious girl, family issues, and baseball career just to name a few to pray about. I have easily spent 25 min just praying for her (now ex-gf...should have made it 30 min :) jk). if you think about your day and your life and break them down, there are so many things to pray about, so many things i had never thought to ever add to prayer. i "was" just looking at it like a Christmas list instead of a time for thankfulness, confession, adoration, praise, and needs in your life. if you never have i enjoyed reading "Power of a Praying Husband" by Stormie Omartian. i am not married or close to it, but i found that book to sort revamp or even completely change the way i thought to pray for my "better half".
I think the thing that I'm lacking here is the quiet idea. I never clear my brain before I pray and the whole walking around in the woods for hours to clear the brain is awesome. I plan on trying to completely clear the mechanism this week and give complete attention to the Master.
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