Apprentice 2 Jesus

Paul challenges me in the life of prayer. In seasons where I am so busy I don’t have time to breath, it seems, how do I pick up the challenge of Paul who constantly told people, “I am always lifting you up in prayer?”

I wish I could be next to Paul and learn from him on this matter. He had to work in some places so he could have income and was not a burden to the fledgling church. How did he carry his prayer life in that time?

One of my great heroes of prayer is Thomas Merton, but I do not have the opportunity to steal away to a monastery to learn prayer! One thing I did learn from his writing is the necessity of labor. There is work to be done. Yet, in that labor, pray.

As I ride the bus to work, as I fill out some paperwork in my office, as I find some repetitive act in my daily work, I can also learn to listen to the Spirit and pray. I need to allow the Spirit to have that space in my life. Maybe I can’t enter a place of prayer and give it 100 percent as I would as a pastor having 8 hours in my church on a given day, but I can listen to the Spirit and breathe up prayers to the Father. They may not be long, but that does mean they are not effective.

Dear Lord, please teach me to pray!