Its Time To Pray

 

        How often do you speak to God?  We often talk about prayer and the fact that we all need to be involved in prayer, but it seems that the amount of time that is spent in actual prayer gets smaller and smaller.  There are numerous verses in the Scripture that speak of prayer and praying.  The word "prayer" is used over 100 times in the Bible and the word "praying" is used over 300 times.  The point is that we need to be involved in prayer that we might communicate with the One who has saved us, God Himself.  Psalm 5:3 says,"My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up." 

      The Psalmist was saying to LORD that He would hear his voice in the morning.  However, as we look through the Scriptures, we can find numerous references to praying being done at other times during the day.  Some people prayed seven times a day as it says in Psalm 119:164.  We also find various times of the day when praying was conducted.  Some may have prayed at night, in the morning, throughout the day, in times of distress or whatever the occasion.  The problem today is that we have run out of time with our busy schedules.  Now that I am older, you would think that we would have more time but that is not the case.  Schedules are just crammed with different things than before.  The result has left us with a minimal amount of time to tack on a quick prayer here and there.  Prayer needs to become a constant attitude where we are spending more time in prayer than in anything else.  We sometimes think that we need to have a specific formula for the putting together of our prayers.  Formulas are not necessary.  We can speak to God at any time.  I would say that the One to whom we are addressing our prayers should be worthy of reverence and respect and that we should not make request to Him with flippant attitudes.  The amazing thing for us is that the creator of the universe has made Himself available to hear and to answer our prayers.  The thing for us to do is to make sure that we do communicate with Him and that we should do it often.  We can look to the Apostle Paul and see a great example of praying.  He prayed often and he prayed for many different people.  Almost every church to which he penned an epistle is reminded about his prayers for them.  So, are you in prayer?  Do you spend time speaking to God?  Echo the words of the Psalmist and say to the LORD, "...My voice shalt thou hear in the morning..."  Praise God today that you can come to Him in prayer any time of the day or night.  He is always there.