PRAY FIRST
Those words jumped out at me as I scrolled through Facebook; the post was advertising a book by that title. My first reaction was “Duh!” But the more I thought about it the more I realized it wasn’t always my practice. Was the author talking about doing it first thing every morning? Was he referring to a recently received blessing, for me, my family, a friend? Or was he talking about addressing a temptation? Maybe a tough decision that needed to be made? Actually, it should be done first in all those situations.
Praying can be hard for some folks; they were never taught how, and consequently always left it to others to do. Then a time comes when THEY need to pray and aren’t sure how to go about it: how to start, how to state their request, nor how to end it. That’s when they realize that maybe they should have been doing it all along.
Praying takes practice, as with anything else we desire to be good at. Some will say “it’s easy, it’s just talking to God”, and while that’s certainly true, once we start doing it, we want to become better. In Matthew 6 the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. Why do you think they asked that? They had seen and heard the Master do it, and knew He was excellent at it, so why didn’t they just continue to let Him do it? Why would they want to know how? Was it because of the Peace they saw on His face afterwards? Or because of the blessings that others received who had been prayed for? Maybe it was to learn how to pray without pulling out a “grocery list” of the same words and requests they constantly repeated? Or possibly it was because Jesus had changed their hearts to wanting to become a better witness, for changing the lives of others for eternity?
Pray First. Don’t you suppose that’s how Jesus started every day? And repeated the practice many times during His waking hours? If, as the Son of God, He needed to, don’t you suppose we should, too? We have nothing to lose, do we, by starting every day talking to God? “But I have to get dressed for work, get the kids dressed for school, make breakfast and lunches for the kids, get them off to school, feed the dog, blah, blah, blah.” Can’t you just set your alarm five minutes ahead??? Pray while shaving/putting on makeup or just brushing your teeth? Maybe while driving to work (but don’t close your eyes!)? “But is that proper, praying while doing other things?” It’s better than NOT praying! God WANTS to hear from us. It’s repeated many times in the Bible. It pleases Him. And who among us doesn’t want to please God? Again, if the Son of God did it, don’t we need to? And then CONTINUE to Pray First in your daily activities, asking for wisdom/insight/the right words to say/help with decisions we must make. Sometimes we fret for days about a situation, when we could have prayed first, requesting advice from the One who created the universe and everything in it. (Now say “duh, why didn’t I think of that earlier?”)
While our days can often be full of activities and hectic, somewhere someone is facing a spiritual problem, a marital problem, a financial problem, an addiction, or even cancer. Can’t we take JUST A MOMENT to pray for strength, courage, and faith in God for them?
Pray First. Man, that’s a Life Lesson in just two words.
In His service, and yours,
Mike Jared
TCM board member
TerriClarkMinistries.org
The Conversation
Good word Mike!