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WHEN I first gave my life to Jesus, I thought that holiness was determined by the amount of time I spent in prayer. A friend and I would pray together at a specific time for an hour each week, and if we felt that we were running out of steam before the hour was up, we would think that our holiness was failing.

I know that David Yonggi Cho, the former pastor of the world’s largest church in Seoul, South Korea, had the capacity to spend his entire time on flights around the globe in prayer, and that he arranged his prayers into manageable segments, so that no matter how long the flight was, he could pray through the entire journey.

Not many of us have that sort of capacity, although it is good to aspire to this level of dedication. God desires that our lives be given to prayer, but he doesn’t demand that we do nothing else. He wants the engineer who is going to a difficult meeting to pray before – and perhaps during – the appointment, and for the teacher to do the same before their most difficult class of the week, and for the mum or dad who is collecting their children at the school gate to pray before trying to witness for Jesus to other parents.

Praying continually is less about praying during every waking moment, and more about bringing every event in our lives to God in prayer before, during and after they happen. We bring each part of our day to God so that each element of the day is guided by him.

PRAYER

The opportunities in the day ahead are for me to make the most of. I will do that best, Lord, if every segment of the day is handed to you for your blessing and guidance. Amen.

WHEN I was a young member of the corps cadet brigade (a teenage Bible study group), these verses worried me. I was an enthusiastic Salvationist who attended at least two open-air meetings most weeks, when we stood on street corners to be seen and heard by others. It took a while for me to realise that there were significant differences between our efforts at evangelism and the ways of the Pharisees.

When we go deep into prayer and communion with our heavenly Father, we enter a realm of intimacy that belies our low humanity, and so it is right that we do so in private, so that what is said and done in those cherished moments of intimacy remains between us and our Lord. He invites us to come with open hearts and open minds to see and hear from him personally.

I have a concern that in Christian circles we sometimes say things like, ‘I will pray for you’ almost as a platitude, rather than it being a commitment to intercede for that situation. For me that is wrong, because if we say we will and then we don’t, we are effectively not speaking truth. When we say we will pray, we should do exactly that.

Jesus calls us to find a place – it can be a room, but equally it can be the car or some quiet outside space – and to go to that place with the specific intention of communing with him. He wants us to talk and listen, sharing the matters of our life both significant and ordinary, and he wants to impart his wisdom to us as we listen.

REFLECT

‘God shapes the world by prayer. The more praying there is in the world, the better the world will be, the mightier the forces against evil.’ E.M. Bounds

‘TAP, tap, tap,’ echoed around the empty café late at night, in a remote town in New South Wales in 1941.

‘Can’t they see we’re closed?’ mumbled the proprietor. But the ‘tap, tap, tap’ persisted. A little exasperated, the owner left his room at the back of the café and walked through the darkened dining area to see who was causing a disturbance at that time of night. Shining his torch through the glass of the front door, he instantly recognised the face of one of the three men standing outside. It was the Australian Prime Minister! In something of a state of shock, the proprietor unbolted the door and was greeted with, ‘Any chance of a cup of tea?’

The PM had been travelling some hours that night and wanted to stop for refreshment. In record time this special customer was served, and not just tea but a quickly prepared meal. Afterwards, the proprietor was asked what he required as payment. He answered, ‘A supply of tea leaves.’ A few days later he received a letter of thanks from the PM, which he proudly displayed in the café, plus a large consignment of tea.

Jesus told a story of a man receiving an unexpected visitor during the night, and of the man going to a neighbour asking for some food for his guest. The focus of the parable was not the importance of the hospitality, though that is a high priority in the Middle East, but to encourage persistence in prayer.

We are not to give up, but to continue praying. It is not that the Lord is unwilling to respond, but that further prayer helps us sort out what really is important to us.

Try jotting down a few subjects to bring before God. There may be things that we need to prepare for, so we are ready to respond when he answers our heartfelt requests.

NONE of them had any inkling that it was to be their last day on earth. Why would they? Probably the day passed as most others, except for the final tragic minutes.

In 20 words or fewer, their last heroic moments are recorded on hand-painted ceramic tiles in the little-known Postman’s Park in central London. Mary, a stewardess, who voluntarily gave away her lifejacket and went down with the ship; Howard, who died from extreme cold, having saved five people when ice on a frozen lake gave way; an apprentice who rescued colleagues from an industrial explosion, but was fatally scalded.

And so the tributes continue. Ordinary people acting courageously on the spur of the moment, rescuing complete strangers from a variety of perils and dangers. Their selfless action is recorded in the Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice in the ground adjacent to St Botolph, Aldersgate.

Would they have acted as they did had they known the cost to themselves and their loved ones? No one knows. But the common themes running through the memorial tiles are of concern, courage and compassion far greater than hesitancy, prudence or non-involvement. We rightly salute them for their on-the-spot, impulsive, sacrificial actions.

Jesus too was heroic in his last act of self-sacrifice, but there was nothing spur-of-the-moment in his bravery. He had counted the cost and was fully aware of the inevitable outcome. He knew opposition, suffering and death awaited in Jerusalem, but he chose it for the sake of others, and the Bible says it was for us all.

None of us knows how we would react if we were confronted with a life-threatening situation. Would we make a snap decision to act in a way that put our lives in danger for the sake of others? In most everyday decisions we have time to consider before acting. Daily there are opportunities to help others, but we need to decide to take risks, display courage and exercise fortitude.

It’s our choice!

THIS short parable is not, as some have tried to suggest, about people’s persistence overcoming God’s reluctance. That is not what prayer is about. Simply put yourself in the position of the man in the parable and you recognise, first of all, your own hesitancy to go to wake a friend late at night and ask for help. Jesus tells us we need to learn that we can come to God at any time without reluctance, and he will hear our prayers. In the King James Version of Scripture, the word ‘persistence’ was not used in this story. In those days, ‘importunity’ was the word. Importunity is a much more urgent word and it alludes to being forceful and annoying. Jesus emphasises that the first obstacle to answered prayer is not a reluctant God, but our fear of stepping out and banging on the doors of Heaven. Jesus suggests that it is our politeness, or modest sensitivity, that prevents answers to prayer rather than God’s reluctance. We are told to keep on asking, seeking and knocking if we want to keep on finding. Jesus calls us to continuity and consistency in our prayers. A woman in my home corps prayed every night for nearly 40 years for her son to return to the Lord. It had broken her heart that he had become a prodigal, and she knocked on the door of Heaven every day, with great persistence, and I suspect some importunity. She was known for her tenacity and her simple yet deep faith that God would hear her prayers. How great was her celebration when her son and his whole family came to the Lord.

I often say my prayers;
But do I ever pray?
And do the wishes of my heart
Go with the words I say?
— John Burton Jr (SASB 765 v 1)