Prayer. . . a subject that has become dear to me over the years and moreso as God has shown me that the concept of prayer is so much more than merely bringing Him a laundry list. Prayer is meant to be two-way communication between the follower of Christ, and God. Scripture mentions various kinds of prayer focuses, one of which Spellen mentions in her devotional, that of intercessory prayer. She suggests that the single woman waiting for her future husband should use her time in The Waiting Room, to look around her and pray for others. She recommends making a list, thinking of family, friends, coworkers, friends, enemies, and their situations, as well as other needs the reader sees, and then praying over that list every day, including things that may not be on that list.
This business of creating a list has been a double-edged sword for me over the years. I used to keep such a list in my notes section of an old Bible program called Theophilus. Invariably, each time I kept a list, it would outgrow the time I had available to cover that list every day. The “problem” if you wish to call it that, with being a prayer warrior, is that bills still need to be paid, meaning you still have to work, and actually take time to pay those bills. Chores still need doing and require time to do them. Activities such as church involvement take time out of your day as well, and if you have a family, that much more time is carved out to be a parent with all the role entails. It is imperative to set some time aside every single day for just you and God, but it can’t be all day, or even half the day. It would be far too easy for a dedicated prayer warrior to build their list and then take several hours every day to cover it. Even my next book, which is now in the hands of reviewer/editors, could take up to an hour to go through each day if all a person does is spend no more than 5 minutes per prayer point and then add Bible reading and journalling on top of it.
Right off the top of my head, a current prayer list might look like the following:
Son’s intestinal issues, shoulder, skin sensitivities, depth of personal faith-walk, (4)
Daughter’s long-term dreams, job (2)
Personal finances, personal health issues, getting books into places where people who need them will find them, (3)
Sister’s health, spiritual protection, depth of personal faith-walk of son, husband’s income (4)
Friend’s marriage struggles, son’s temperment, safety of townspeople, sis-in-law’s faith and family safety, husband’s family issues (6)
Pastoral adherence to preaching the Truth at a local church
Recovery for lady being prayed for by mid-week prayer group
Moral decline in public sphere locally, provincially, and nationally (3)
Prayer for local, provincial, national leaders and their families (6)
Prayer for safety of Israel
Prayer for North Korea (everytime I see it in the news)
That’s 32 points of prayer right there without going into specifics too deeply. If I begin and end my prayer as Christ taught, with praise and adoration of who God is and what He has done, which means taking time to be thankful for various situations, provisions, etc that God has provided as well, (that is another list all by itself that is healthy to create) and if I only give one minute to every item on this list, I could very easily spend an hour or more in prayer.
Depending on your schedule and efforts to adjust it for healthy spiritual habits, you may or may not have a minimum of one hour to spend in prayer, let alone adding Scripture-reading and journalling to the mix. This is where another aspect of being an intercessor comes in.
Scripture says to “Pray without ceasing”. Some interpret this to mean never getting up off your knees and hitting your prayer mat every chance you get. Instead, when you look at the Greek behind this verse, you see that it’s talking about a running conversation with God as you go about your daily life. God does long to be included in your daily activities, and keeping an ear out to Him and conversing with Him as you go through your day’s events, does very much include Him. You might even be surprised at how God then chooses to interact with your day! Talk to God about the traffic. Talk to God about your family situation as you deal with it. Talk to God about your shopping trip. Talk to God about paying your bills. Talk to God about what you’re seeing on the news.
In this manner you can get far more than one hour’s prayer into your day. However don’t rule out some private time for just you and God as well. It may be in your personal private time that God lays a particular burden for some situation in someone’s life on your heart. Obey that prompting and spend some time allowing the Holy Spirit to pray through you over that situation.
God very much loves it when we engage Him in conversation! Just as Spellen says, the more often we draw near to God, the more He will share with us the things on His heart. So whether you have the time to spend in concerted effort in prayer to go over an ever-changing prayer list, or whether you converse with God throughout your day instead, make sure you are in communication with the Lover of your soul! Don’t shut Him out!
