Goodbook messages arrive every Monday, Wednesday, and
Friday with a Scripture reading and ideas for how to apply the reading in our
lives. We are reading through the book of Acts. For additional Scripture
reading, you can follow the Advanced Track.Reading: Acts 16:13-16a
(Advanced Track: 2 Sam 16‐18; Ps 26, Ps 40, Ps 58, Ps 61‐62, Ps 64)
16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer…
Application:
Do you ever get so busy that you forget to pray? If I am honest, I do. And this simple half-sentence calls me back to the importance of prayer.
Paul and Silas were on a missionary journey. They were super busy with traveling, spreading the good news, and developing communities of faith. Yet they made prayer an important part of their routine. They even found a place where they could pray.
As a pastor, I can let my schedule get so filled with doing God-stuff that I neglect God. How crazy is that?!? Yet it often happens. I imagine your life is busy and your schedule can get pretty filled as well. How are you doing with making time to talk with God and listen to God?
Bill Hybels, the founder of Willow Creek, wrote a book called “Too Busy Not To Pray.” He reminds us what we miss out on when we do not make time for prayer. “Prayerless people cut themselves off from God's peace and from his prevailing power, and a common result is that they feel overwhelmed, overrun, beaten down, pushed around, and defeated by a world operating with a take-no-prisoners approach.” Ever feel like that? I know I can feel that way when my life is not centered in prayer. Hybels also reminds us that we discover the meaning and purpose of our life through prayer. “The heart and soul of the Christian life is learning to hear God's voice and then developing the courage to do what he asks us to do.”
Prayer is the key to connecting with God’s peace, God’s power, and God’s plan for our lives. We are crazy if we think we can make it through life apart from prayer. I don’t know about you, but I am too busy not to pray. So how can we make prayer a regular part of our routine.
Well, I think it helps to have a place of prayer, like Paul and Silas did. This can be different for different people. I know one woman whose place of prayer is the trail she runs daily. I know another man whose car is his place of prayer. Every time he gets in the car, he shuts the radio off and spends a few minutes in prayer. The key is finding a place where you can have quiet focused time with God every day.
It also helps to have a pattern for prayer. One pattern that Hybels lifts up in his book is the ACTS prayer: Adoration (praise and exalt God), Confession (confess our sin and ask for forgiveness), Thanksgiving (thank God for God’s blessings and gifts in our life), and Supplication (ask God for guidance and help). Our pattern of prayer should also incorporate times of listening as well as speaking.
1) Identify a time and place where you can pray each day.
2) Identify a helpful pattern for prayer times
Share your thoughts, questions, and ideas about how to apply this…
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