If you are a follower of Jesus and you’re thinking of Life Management, you would most likely think of prayer as the first in a list of seven areas to manage. No argument from me. As I mentioned yesterday, the only reason rest came first in my list, is because unless we rest we won’t do the rest.
I’m coming off a two-day vacation I took in Ohio to celebrate my older brother Tom’s birthday. The time gave me a much needed rest after an extremely full time at New Life with the preparation for and execution of the fifteenth anniversary celebrations. On the second morning I woke up early feeling rested. That’s a great sign. As I noted yesterday when we need an alarm clock to wake up it’s a sign that we’re sleep deprived. As I was lying in bed, knowing that I was the only one in the house who was awake, my natural response was to pray.
I schedule most of my days to start in prayer, but it was good to know that when I had a “day off,” a day without a schedule my natural response was to wake up early and pray. That only happened because I was rested, and because my relationship with God has grown to the point that prayer has become my “default” mode when I have free time, or face challenges, or when I am feeling blessed and want to say, “Thank You” to God for those blessings. The point here, though, is because I started with rest, I was ready to pray.
Prayer ought to become more and more a natural part of leaders’ lives as we grow older, and as we mature. Since God created us, redeemed us and sustains us, the more aware of those realities we become, the more natural it becomes for us to pause and relate with Him. I have found over the years, that the more intentional I am about prayer, the more likely it is that even my unintentional moments will include prayer. By that I mean when I schedule prayer into my daily routine, starting the day with prayer, asking God for guidance before I start to write a weekend message, and taking time to thank Him intentionally before meals and to pray with Nancy before we go to sleep, the rest of the day is filled with natural moments–and sometimes nearly sub-conscious moments–of prayer as well.
The Apostle Paul reminded the believers in the Thessalonian church to pray without ceasing. That becomes more and more a reality as we grow in our relationship with God, in and through Jesus and the presence of the Holy Spirit. After all, every healthy relationship grows when meaningful communication is central to it.
Just a brief word about the process of prayer. One of the keys for me in growing in the area of prayer in my life has been to remember that prayer is both talking to God–which is more natural for most of us–and LISTENING to and for His responses. That part of prayer is much less likely to be natural for most of us. My tendency in a time of need, for example, is to ask God for His input, help, or power, but then to start immediately to attempt to solve the problem or overcome the obstacle myself. There’s nothing wrong with doing our part when it comes to solving the problems and overcoming the obstacles in life. God expects that. We find a clear statement of that truth in Philippians 2:12-13.
But the second half of those verses reminds us that God works within us to will and to work for His good pleasure. That’s God’s part, the part we can’t do. When we pray we must wait and listen. If we get an immediate response that’s great. When we don’t, it’s important to continue to keep ourselves open to God’s response throughout the day, week, or whatever period of time we’re going through the problem or obstacle.
Henry Blackaby made a powerful observation about the way God communicates with us in his book Experiencing God. Blackaby wrote that God communicates with us through four primary means: The Bible (His written word); through prayer as the Holy Spirit responds to our prayers; through circumstances, when we pray for a specific situation and the ensuing circumstance or circumstances in our lives lines up as a response to it; and through other believers, when someone comes to us and offers us wise advice as we’re going through a problem, or even comes to us and tells us that God has told them something that is for us.
Blackaby pointed out that each of the four means God uses to speak to us is in a descending order of probability. After all, when we read the Bible we know it’s God’s word, but sometimes when we “hear” God’s voice in prayer, it may be God, or it may be our desires speaking to us. In the same way a circumstance may simply be a circumstance and not God’s word to us. Finally, people will occasionally play the “God told me” card to get us to do what they want us to do. This can be particularly true for those of us who serve as pastors. What better way to get the pastor to agree with my position than to tell him or her that God told me my position was what He wants to have done in the church?
Making time in our lives for intentional prayer is vital to developing this area of our lives, as is the increasing process of including God in our daily conversations whether self-talk or conversations we have with others. Indeed, prayer isn’t just one area of Life Management out of seven, but rather a vital part of every growing leader’s life.
As we reminded ourselves in a recent post, the unexamined life is not worth living, so take some time right now to ask yourself what part, if any, prayer plays in your schedule and in your day? Whatever the response, remember that a life well-managed will include an increasing awareness of God’s guidance and leadership, which means an increasing intentionality and participation in prayer.
Here’s to leading better by talking and listening to God–today!