In a recent study of 1 Samuel, I came across one of those verses that stop us dead in our tracks. I couldn't imagine how I had missed it before. It was immediately obvious that it wasn't limited to the immediate context. Its message is for all believers everywhere, and it is as applicable today as any time throughout history. Here it is:

You can check it out for yourself to see the context, but the principle is the same. Prayerlessness is a sin. Not only is it a sin against God, but it is a sin against those God wants us to pray for. When we are too busy or too unconcerned to pray, we are depriving God of our fellowship (through prayer) which He deeply desires. We become derelict in our responsibility to partner with God as He runs His universe. And finally, we deprive others of the benefits of our prayers.

We're all guilty of letting the world infringe on our prayer life. We  know we are to pray without ceasing-to have the mindset that God is always right beside us and we are having a constant dialog with Him, sharing our joys, frustrations, and, hopefully, our expressions of thanks. But we fall so short or what could be.

Why do we let this happen? We must identify the problem before we can fix it. Here are some of the challenges we face:

1. The age and culture we live in has us so busy with stuff that we don't have time to pray. Our lives are so consumed with "doing" that relating to God as He desires must wait. We are convinced we really don't have time to pray. We are convinced that life's demands are more important.
2. We want to be constantly entertained. If we're on a walk or bike ride, we've got the headphones on listening to music or who knows what. Just talking with God seems so "unproductive."
3. We feel obligated to be constantly using the technology we have purchased. Every spare moment must be spent contact someone, researching something, or just looking to see what we might have missed. What we might be missing with God never enters our minds.
4. It's possible that we're really not interested in what God considers important.
5. It's also possible that we think prayer is primarily asking God for something, and since He hasn't answered many of our prayers (the way we want Him to), we gave up. The idea is praying for others or for God's kingdom has been choked by our own selfishness.

Courtesy of allposters.com

 

We all can relate to at least one of these. Isn't it time we do something to change our ways? Not only can we eliminate a sin, but we can finally start drawing close to our Abba Father and experience what we have been missing. God is waiting. He wants to hear from us. What are we waiting for?

An actual church announcement: