When Do We Pray? (Part 2)

As my husband and I were facing a very difficult situation recently, we did what is so typical of humans. We spent much time thinking and talking about it, with all the what ifs and what abouts, getting ourselves more confused and anxious the longer we considered it. Coming to a point of agreement about the first step we needed to take in the dilemma, we tried to move on to the next step. I had such a sense of the potential consequences of any actions we might take, that I declared we needed to pray to seek God’s will before we went any further.

When you read about it, it’s obvious that this is the proper course of action. But in the middle of a very emotional time, we neglected to see the obvious. In that moment of revelation of the need for God’s will, He made it so clear to me that prayer was to have been the course of action from the first. We didn’t need to spend all the time figuring, planning, discussing, and fretting, and then come to Him to find out what His plan was. We needed to come to Him immediately, staying in the peace of God, which is an impossibility when we walk in our own wisdom.

Phil 4:6-7 says, “⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

After all, what does it really come down to? We always need God’s wisdom. And how do we get His wisdom? We pray for it.

James 1:5 says, “⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”

The word the Lord used with me to get my attention was prayerlessness. I haven’t found that specific word in the Bible, but there are many verses about the opposite – being faithful in prayer. (1 Thes. 5:16-18, Romans 12:2, et al) Look at Jesus, our example of how to live by the Spirit while on this earth. There are so many specific instances where Jesus went by Himself to pray, He prayed all night, or He arose early to pray. He walked in nothing but God’s wisdom, even in the midst of incredibly difficult circumstances. And never was He anxious or worried! Why? Because He took everything to His Father, sought and waited for His wisdom, then acted on it.

I had to repent for prayerlessness against God. It wasn’t that I wasn’t praying. But by not praying first, I was putting my wisdom above His, trusting myself to come up with the answers. Only those I couldn’t figure out, would I ask Him about. How thankful I am that He convicted me of this and brought me to repentance, and how I pray that He will remind me each time I begin to try reasoning and figuring, rather than first coming to Him in prayer.

© Copyright 2004 Kay V. Stocking