A Commission To Pray

"With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints," Ephesians 6:18

Do you pray when people ask you to? No doubt we all say we do. Someone tells us about something that's going on in their life that needs prayer, and we always say "we'll be praying about that." And then the week goes on and we go about our business, and before you know it, you're seeing that person again, asking how their week is going, and you fill this twinge of guilt. Sure, maybe once or twice during the week while being busy, you thought of this person and their trial and shot a quick murmur to heaven for them. But did you truly pray for them?

I used to be so horrible at this! Of course, I didn't always have a real prayer time either, and that contributed, I'm sure. I used to be on the prayer chain at our church, and when a call would come in, I would always pray about it immediately, but then as time passed, I wouldn't pray again for that request. I would think about it, and think that "oh, I need to pray for that!" but then I never got around to it. It's verses like today's verse that gives me encouragement to do a better job with prayer. Prayer is such a beautiful thing!

One of the times that I pray is when I'm doing my church cleaning. I've been cleaning for so long now, that I do it pretty much without thinking. So while I clean, I pray for those who come to mind. There are some people who sit in the same seats every week, so those people get prayed for as I'm running the vacuum past their seats. They come to mind, so I pray for them. We have several handy-men in church, and they get prayed for as I'm cleaning near their handiwork. All the members of the music team get prayed for individually when I clean the stage and dust. I pray for the Pastor, secretary and our church leaders when I clean the office. I pray for the children as I clean their classrooms- with an extra prayer for the teachers. And every once in a while, while I'm at church in prayer mode, I'll feel like I'm missing someone, so I'll track down the church directory, and make sure I do some praying for anyone that I have missed.

The point being, the Bible tells us to pray continuously. The more you do it, the more naturally it happens. Two times where I find myself praying a lot are when I do the dishes and when I take a shower. As a busy mom, I need to find that quiet time for myself, and those are the two that I have found. Lately it seems I can add tending the garden to that list, but notice that I'm not specifically stopping what I'm doing to pray. There are times where I feel the need to close myself into my bedroom and simply pray, but for the most part, I do the bulk of my praying when I'm busy with my hands, but not so much my mind. It works better than you would think, and if you're struggling with finding the time to pray, I have to encourage you to try it sometime. Sometime when you are doing a task that you don't really have to think about- whether you are doing housework, a craft project, or something at your job, just give prayer a shot. You'll be amazed at how easily it comes, and even better- it makes the mundane task fly by very quickly. As people come to mind, pray for them. As upcoming events are looming, pray for them. Pray for your community, your state, your country. Pray for the government and our leaders- you think they couldn't use a few prayers? There is always someone or something to pray for, and the more practice you get doing it, the easier it gets.