God will not look down on you for praying in a broom closet, just as He will not allot extra brownie points to someone praying from a gilded stateroom. He won’t dismiss you offhand for having a five o'clock shadow, or having bread dough under your fingernails, because the wife asked if you could help her stretch and fold it minutes earlier, nor will He show special favor to someone with perfectly manicured nails in a tailored suit.
The things that draw the eyes of men, the things that impress
and cause others to see you in a certain type of way, neither move nor impress
God. It’s the manner in which we approach Him, whether our hearts are humble
and contrite, whether we desire to know Him for the sake of knowing Him, or
feign interest in hoping to get what we really want, that God sees and weighs.
You don’t learn to swim by reading about water. You don’t
learn to pray by reading about prayer. Reading about the effectiveness of
prayer and how others who practice it have grown through it can motivate you
and inspire you, but to know these benefits for yourself, you must actively
pursue it with fervor and focus.
That prayer works is an undeniable reality. It is a proven
thing. That there is no barrier to entry when it comes to prayer is likewise a
truth that we cannot deny. You don’t need a degree or a high school diploma to
pray. You don’t need to complete a course or workshop to qualify for spending
time with God. All you need is the willingness and desire to lay all else aside
and pursue Him. Knock, and He will open. He will not turn you down, or tell you
He can squeeze you in for five minutes in three months' time.
Whenever, wherever, each time you come before God in prayer,
He hears, and He sees.
This morning I woke up early. By early, I mean before 3 am,
and since I usually allow myself to sleep in until five or so on any given
morning, I consider it early. I tiptoed into the kitchen, brewed myself a cup
of coffee, then tiptoed back to my office, ready to spend some time in prayer
without the distractions of a bustling household, hungry children, or traffic
noises from outside.
What I was reminded of as I began to pray is that there are
two types of distractions that are equally detrimental to a focused and
effective prayer. There are external distractions, such as phones, alerts,
bells, whistles, ringtones, and various other things; then there are the
internal distractions, the ones that occur in one’s mind.
The external distractions are easy to free oneself from,
often with the push of a button or an off switch, but the mental distractions
are far more challenging to unburden oneself of, because you can’t walk away
from them, and it takes practice to be able to switch them off at will.
It’s amazing how many things your mind starts to ponder and
dwell on as you begin to pray, things that had not crossed your mind until that
particular moment, and when this occurs the first thing we must do is identify
whether it’s a distraction, or an urging of the Holy Spirit to pray for a
specific situation or a specific person.
Not everything that crosses your mind is worth dwelling on
when you enter into prayer, but some things may be no less than a nudge of the
Spirit to direct you on what you should be praying about, or who you should be
interceding for. Whether taking a Bounty, wrapping it in a crepe, dipping it in
batter, and then deep-frying it might be the next big thing in over-the-top
state fair fare is likely just a garden-variety distraction. Remembering
someone you’ve had on your heart, and feeling the need to pray for them, likely
isn’t.
It is our duty to bring every thought into captivity to the
obedience of Christ. What this means is that when a thought arises unbidden, we
do not dwell on it or become preoccupied with it, but filter it through the
prism of the mind of Christ and determine whether it’s worth continuing to
think about.
We’re always thinking about something. Our minds are like
flowing rivers, and occasionally, a thought gets snagged on a rock or a shallow
spot and ceases its natural flow. Usually, what gets snagged isn’t something
worth devoting endless amounts of time toward, but something trivial and not
worthy of contemplation. It’s our duty to shake it loose and let it go on its
way rather than grow fascinated with it when there is no spiritual benefit to
doing so. How many times can you patch a shirt before it becomes a whole new
shirt? Who cares? Is it really something worth researching and trying to figure
out? Obviously not, but we go down rabbit trails more often than we’d like to
admit, and find ourselves squandering time we could have put to better use.
Prayer is one of the handful of things the enemy is actively
trying to keep us from pursuing consistently because he understands the power
of prayer more thoroughly than most believers. He understands that the more we
pray, the stronger we become, and the stronger we become, the easier it is for
us to resist him, rebuke him, and walk in the authority rightly ours as sons
and daughters of God.
The enemy is not bothered by half-hearted, lukewarm,
situational, or casual Christians. Powerless believers, lacking in authority
and spiritual grounding, or those with a stagnant prayer life, pose no threat
to him. What he loathes and fears in equal measure are those who walk by faith,
and do not lean on their own understanding but submit to God’s will in all
things.
If you feel like the enemy is targeting you, if at every turn
there is an obstacle you must overcome, if the attacks come swift and sure without
reprieve, know that you are on the right track, and the enemy sees you as a
threat.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea, Jr.
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