Prayer is like breathing – if you follow Jesus, you have to pray.
One way that prayer is not like breathing is that we won’t die right away if we stop. But if we don’t pray, it will be the start of a long slow death.
Picture a marriage where two people live in the same 1-bedroom apartment under quarantine. If they don’t talk with each other, things will start to go bad really quickly.
God wants to hear from us, just as we want to hear from him.
Maybe you’ve stopped praying because you haven’t seen the answers you want. No doubt, that’s a hard place to be. But Jesus asked us to be persistent, even if we don’t get an answer. The widow he used as an example cried out to the judge day and night.
Another way to pray is to ask others to pray with you.
Until early March, I was looking for a full-time job. I enlisted a group of people to pray with me. They did, faithfully. I was greatly encouraged to know that they were on my side… I wasn’t fighting that battle alone.
Asking others to pray with you might allow them to be part of the answer to your prayers. They may know something or somebody to help with the challenge you’re facing.
The photo is used by permission under a Creative Commons license. Thanks to Jack Sharp, the photographer. His work is on Unsplash.
Paul Merrill writes here every First Friday.
300 words a day 