What If I Don’t Feel Like It?

I’ve heard of people who arose every day at 4 am to pray for three hours—but I’ve yet to meet one!  Honestly, I can’t imagine doing this!  And though I have a “God day” once a week, this isn’t a day I dedicate to praying for others, but for spending time with my Hero, my Beloved, my Everything.    But I do sometimes find Him reminding me to pray for others on those days, rather than just for things I’m struggling with or rejoicing over.  (My favorite way to spend a God day is trying to grasp a mystery of the King of the universe—such as how He created the earth in such a way that it sits on an axis in outer space and doesn’t fall off!)

I sometimes feel guilty for not praying more than I do, but then I realize if it becomes hard—or a yoke—then it’s doubtfully from the Lord; feeling self-important or religious just doesn’t make me feel closer to Him.  However, there is something that prompts me to pray like clockwork—even for just a few short minutes.  The culture in which I live has a reminder five times daily to pray, which has also provoked me to pray more often.  I try to speak to the Lord—or better yet, just rejoice in His amazing love and wonders—when I hear this voice singing nearby, morning, noon and night.  Granted, I can’t always hear it, depending on where I am and where that voice is coming from, but I often do and try to stop what I’m doing—even for just a minute—to tell the Lord how wonderful He is, how much I love Him, how much I know He’s working on the earth.  I don’t want to make it into a big deal and try to sound holy or religious—it’s just my way of “speaking life” where I am, over the people I see every day, over the nation I live in. 

On one occasion, I was dragging myself upstairs to play my guitar and sing a worship song, and when I sat down to play, the Lord spoke, “If you think you’re doing this for me, you’re mistaken.  I don’t need you to worship Me.  But you need to do it for your own spirit to be refilled.”  I was shocked!  Here I was thinking I was doing the “right” thing by praying or worshiping along with the “call to prayer” when I discovered that worshiping our King a few times a day—even if just for a minute—actually filled my spirit.  Though I wasn’t consciously trying to impress Him, subconsciously, that’s exactly what I was doing.  And of course, He wasn’t impressed—He just knew I needed to worship Him in order to feel closer to Him!

Now when I hear that familiar voice praying in a foreign, unfamiliar language, I try to remember my need to pray and rejoice in Him…because He’s worthy and wonderful, and my spirit needs to be able to tell Him so in order to thrive.  For those who don’t have that reminder several times a day, I hope something causes you to sing (even just in your head) His praises.  I once met someone who had an alarm on his watch that went off two times daily just for that purpose!  Taking a minute in stress-filled lives to meet with our Creator is a great encourager in a discouraging world!

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”   (1 Peter 2:9)