They say there are two kinds of prayer: ‘thank you, thank you, thank you!’ and ‘Oh God, Help!’ The former bursts forth on those rare occasions of unbounded glee, the latter comes out during those hopefully rare moments of white-knuckle peril. When we’re honest with ourselves, many of us don’t spend near enough time between these two extremes doing what Jesus seems to expect from His followers in Luke 18 – that they, ‘pray always and not lose heart.’

Luke, more than any other Gospel writer tells us about prayer – about how we’re supposed to do it all the time and believe in its unwavering efficacy – if for no other reason, because Jesus did it – sometimes all night, and sometimes to the point of sweating blood. But how, and why do we moderns, who spend most of our waking hours working, driving, parenting, worrying, and generally trying to keep up with life, ‘pray always and never lose heart?’

Certainly Jesus didn’t expect us to take this literally, lest Christianity become a religion of hermits – or very bad drivers. What Jesus may have been getting at is that prayer is not so much an activity, as it is an attitude – an attitude that is formed by God when we spend time contemplating the mysteries, meditating on the promises, and simply talking to the One person who always wants to listen.

This doesn’t have to be done with formal liturgies, on kneelers, or even in quiet places. God knows we can pay attention to ball games in bars, certainly we can think about the Lord as our Shepherd in the subway. Jesus stresses the importance of prayer because it’s good for us. It reminds us of who’s in charge, who will take our burdens, and where life is ultimately destined to go. When we pray we remind ourselves, and God, or our positions in life – as the Lover and the Beloved – and how we’ve been made channels of that affection for all that surrounds us. These are the things that matter. This is why Jesus wants us to do it more often. Let’s take a moment this week and figure out a way to make prayer a more central part of our lives.


Reading
Enough – Adam Hamilton
Sins of Scripture – John Spong
Radical – David Platt