A Prayer Challenge

I've concluded that most Christians only give lip service to the concept of prayer. If we truly believed it "worked," we would actually practice it.

I mean really spend time in prayer . . . as opposed to offering a "quick shot" up to God and heading back to what we were doing . . . or off to "more important things." {IS there anything more important?}

When we talk about prayer, we always conclude that there is nothing more important. But then we go back to those more important things and ignoring prayer! What gives? We know the truth, but we ignore it.

How much time do you pray? Have you heard that the average daily time a pastor spends praying is 3 minutes a day? How sick is that? How can you claim to be in "God's service" and only spend 3 minutes with him in a day? And why should we blame pastors for their poor prayer habits when the average Christian probably has a much worse prayer habit?

Example: I'm stationed at a corps where we had a daily prayer meeting going on for over 2 years. I have been told (by one who attended those meetings) that one day, one of their corps officers said something like: "what use is this?" and stopped those meetings. Now I have intentionally ignored finding out who that officer was, because I fear running off half-cocked to find that guy and punch him out!

Example: I can't count how many times I've been to TSA events where prayer meetings aren't even scheduled. Or they are scheduled and 3 people show up! Or they are scheduled only 1/2 hour out of the entire event!

If we believed prayer worked (I mean REALLY believed it), wouldn't we schedule our events the other way around? How about a week-long prayer meeting (24/7) and 1/2 hour of making the decision we came to meet for in the first place?

If we believed prayer worked (I mean REALLY believed it), wouldn't we identify those who are gifted in intercession and appoint them in positions where they could spend most of their time in prayer (of course, that should hold true for ever other spiritual gift as well)? Can you imagine having an officer appointed to THQ or DHQ to pray? I don't mean a prayer ambassador or sergeant, but actually giving someone the responsibility to spend the majority of their time actually praying. I know of at least one leader who actually has a job like this- he is paid to pray 8 hours every day.

If we believed prayer worked (I mean REALLY believed it), wouldn't Christian adults be crowded around a Youth Councils event actually praying (during the event) for the youth involved?

We had a seriously powerful Youth Councils last weekend. Imagine how much MORE powerful it would have been; how many MORE lives would have been changed if we REALLY believed prayer worked and practiced praying.

I hope these thoughts are challenging you. But I hope they challenge you to actually DO something about it- like start REALLY praying.

We all believe in tithing a 10%. If we carry that through to everything (not just money), we should spend 2 1/2 hours in prayer every day! Imagine what that would do to the Church! Imagine how soon we'd reach the world for Christ!

Okay- here's the deal: I challenge you to pray 1 hour a day for the next week. I don't mean adding up all the moments of prayer throughout the day until you reach 1 hour, I mean get in one place with God (and your Bible and a note pad) and communicate with him for 1 full hour (that means talking AND listening).

I made that commitment years ago and it changed my life. I don't always live up to that commitment, but when I fail, I get up, dust myself off and start all over again. Ultimately I do a pretty good job of it, by Gods grace.

If you find praying 1 hour a day works out well for you, why not keep it up for another week? Or maybe a month? A year? The rest of your life?

If you're up to the challenge, leave me a comment. After the week, let me know what happened.