Wednesday nights have become a favorite here in the Pruitt house. Kade, our 15-year-old son, loves his REVIVE Youth group services, and Kody and I love the adult class study. We have taken this as an opportunity to study the lessons together early in the morning, and then go over them together with the group on Wednesday nights. I don’t think either one of us has said a thing during the discussion, but we both spend the drive home discussing each section again because we love the insight from the pastor, author and class members.
This month we are going through the book, “Before Amen,” by Max Lucado. It’s a study about prayer and how it doesn’t have to be so complicated. It seems that every time I sit down to read the book, I’m always thinking of 1 Thessalonians 5:17: “pray without ceasing.”
‘Pray without ceasing,’ over and over and over again, the Lord has been reminding me. Over and over and over again, I have just dismissed it.
Early last week – again – the Lord was reminding me to pray without ceasing and I just stopped what I was doing, and said, “LORD! I don’t even know what that means! How can anyone pray and pray and pray without stopping?! I’m not a monk that lives in a temple. You know I’ll never get anything done!”
I heard in my spirit, “That’s the point Staci … You won’t get anything done without ME. Pray first and we will do it together.”
It seems silly though doesn’t it – to pray for everything and all the time? I’ve prayed for parking places and then almost checked myself because people are dying of cancer. God has bigger things to deal with than me walking across a parking lot in the cold, right? No!
Where did we get this notion that we can only ask for certain things because God is too big?
He knows the desires of my heart, according to Psalm 37:4. He knew me before there was even an earth, Jeremiah 1:5 proclaims! He keeps count of the hairs on my head (Luke 12:7). He wants to know everything about me, and if I ask, He will do it (John 14:13-14).
Nothing is too big. Nothing is too small. I am better able to give God everything when I have a heart of prayer.
I have come to realize that to ‘pray without ceasing’ is to have an attitude of continual dependence upon God. In every decision we make, prayer should be our first stop. When fear strikes, prayer should be our first defense. When something great happens, a prayer of thanksgiving should flow from our lips.
God is with us, and prayer puts us into His presence.
No, we can’t always stop and kneel in the middle of Safeway. We can, though, offer up a prayer of thanksgiving because our favorite red, seedless grapes were found on sale and we have the money to buy them. You may not be able to close your eyes and bow your head as you are driving up Route 301 during rush hour, but you can pray for wisdom as you go about your work day.
The line between you and God is always open, and you can pray without ceasing in your heart and with your attitude.
I’m not gonna lie – it’s not easy to have an attitude of prayer. It seems like a workout for me, but I’m starting to see things differently, the way God wants me to see them, not the way the world does.
If you feel like you’re struggling with prayer or you want to know more about it, please join us on Wednesday nights at 7 p.m. for our adult class in the church sanctuary. If you have a prayer request, I would love to pray with you. You can also come to the prayer hour on Thursdays from 12-1 p.m., which also meets in the sanctuary.
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Staci Pruitt has been attending Calvary Grace with her family since the summer of 2014. She owns a photography business called Simply Taken Portraits (simplytakenportraits.com) where her vast array of creativity is on display through her impressionable storytelling with a camera. Staci also has a blog on her photography site. Her creative juices are now being put to use as the architect of Calvary Grace’s Web site while being an administrator of the church’s Facebook page.
