Too Busy to Pray?

I often feel the call to pray, but don’t because I’m just “too busy.”  Many things demand my time—important things (well, some not so important things slip in there too...).  I can’t just neglect my other tasks, my mind screams.  If I devoted an hour of day to prayer, how would I ever get all my things accomplished? 

But I have found that when I put Christ first, all the other things simply line up.

When the disciples fished all night by themselves, they caught nothing.  However, when Jesus came and stood in their midst the next morning, they caught more than their boat could hold!

When prayer is not the center of our lives and we are caught up with other things, we continually fail and waste time.

But, when we meditate on the words of our Lord and spend time in His presence instead, we shall be like a tree that brings forth much fruit, according to Psalms 1.  When we make this our first priority and sacrifice everything else, the other things work out somehow.  We will find ourselves actually more prosperous and successful than before.  Tasks that used to take us three hours no take us one.  Even though we spend less time on these things and more time meditating on God’s Word and communing with Him in prayer, we find ourselves more successful.

Remember that prayer is a passion of God’s heart.  He delights in the prayers of the righteous.  As we learned yesterday, He longs for us to dine with Him.  Do you not think He will make time for you to do that?  Do you not think that if you give Him some of your precious sleep-time that He will fill in the needed strength?  After all, He is God.  :)  Never doubt Him, my friends.  Be willing to make sacrifices on His behalf, and He will abundantly bless you.

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” ~Matthew 6:33

This is a promise.  One we can count on (remembering that God never lies).  When we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, everything else we need will be added to us.  Never doubt that.

Note: This is not an excuse to fiddle around and watch TV all day instead of doing your work.  This is not an excuse to quit your job entirely either because you don’t like it.  This is an equipping for the tasks that God has called us to.  For some, He calls us to thirty minutes of prayer a day. For others, He may be calling you to spend 1-2 hours in prayer.  Others He invites to spend an entire day in prayer.  Look to Him.  What is He asking you to do?  Be obedient to His call, knowing that He will supply all the rest.

The next time you are tempted to choose busyness over time with the Lord, remember that putting Jesus, remember that putting Jesus first is the key to making life work.  Always.