“Don’t quit in hard times. Pray all the harder.” Romans 12:12b The Message
“Persist in prayer” Romans 12:12 NET
Don’t give up praying – even when times get tough.
When things get rough that is the exact time to dial up the prayer -to move it up a notch and not give up. That is what this passage in Romans 12 is telling us to do.
When life throws us a curve ball – if it hasn’t happened yet, it will – we tend to shut down spiritually.
We dry up. We stop attending church. The Bible gathers dust beside the bed.
Praying definitely ceases – in fact it is probably the first thing that falls by the wayside in both good and bad times.
But that is not the time to give up – it’s the time to buckle down and double up on prayer.
The Greek word, proskartereo used in this verse fascinated me. It is to be devoted to something, to give unremitting care to a thing and to persevere and not faint. To stick to something and stubbornly continue in it.
The question that I ask myself is – is that what I am like in prayer?
This type of prayer life sounds more like a prayer lifestyle. A constant awareness of God’s presence in your life.
A rhythm of communicating with your Heavenly Father throughout the day.
How do we create such a prayer rhythm?
In one word -Priorities
I have discovered that my goals are achievable by rearranging my priorities.
Last year I made my goal to lose weight a top priority in my life. In order for it to be the most important thing – I had to rearrange my day so that a daily walk happens. I had to put in place new habits of drinking more water and entering my daily calories – without fail.
In order for prayer to become the rhythm of our days – we need to rearrange our priorities.
It’s a mental shift to be devoted to prayer. That shift happens when we believe in the benefits of what we are being devoted to. I knew with my weight loss goal that the benefits would be worth implementing the new habits in my life.
It’s the same with prayer. The benefits are out of this world. God turns up in your day. Things start to work together for good (Romans 8:28). Peace comes in and sets up guard over your mind and emotions (Philippians 4:6-7). Relationships can be healed. Miracles take place.
How do you prioritize prayer?
Here is my easy way of developing a prayer lifestyle – Bookend your day with prayer.
What do I mean by Bookend?
Start the day with prayer – the minute you open your eyes – God, Hi – thanks for the sleep last night. Thanks for being my God. Help me today with… Then Bookend the end of your day by falling asleep thanking God for the day.
It’s a simple but powerful habit.
It’s the first habit that transformed by prayer life to becoming a prayer lifestyle where God becomes real in my daily moments.
Start Bookending your day with prayer today. Then follow it up tomorrow until it becomes part of your routine.
You will find that it leads to a God consciousness throughout the day. You will become more aware of God working in your encounters with people.
Life becomes an adventure and miracles can happen.
This is a short excerpt from my book on Intentional Prayer – How you can have a powerful effective prayer life. Keep an eye on the Facebook page and this website for when the book is released.
If this has inspired you please share it and pass it on – share buttons below.
Leave a Reply