The Work of Prayer

Do you ever feel like there are so many things you need to pray about that you can never pray enough to cover them all, even though you pray frequently through your day, as well as during your “quiet time”? Almost every spare moment that you are not required to be thinking about what you’re doing right now, you are trying to remember what else you need to pray about, or pray more about, or in the right way. Maybe you have gone on this way for days or weeks before you realize that prayer has become a really heavy job for you. It’s work, work, work. You find yourself so dragged down that there is no joy in prayer and in bringing others before the Father.

I was beginning to feel this way not long ago, when I heard the phrase in my spirit, “the work of prayer.” I knew the Lord was not trying to tell me that prayer involves work, but that I had gotten into working at prayer, rather than letting the Spirit pray through me. Does prayer require an effort on our part? Definitely. Should we expect to improve in our prayer relationship with the Lord over time, with practice (aka work)? Of course. Are there times when we must really stay focused in our prayer for a person or situation until we see the victory? Certainly. But we must be led by the Spirit to pray about those things. And we must pray in the Spirit so that it is His Spirit doing the praying through us. We might get tired, and it might get “heavy” for a time, but it will be because of the spiritual battle we are in, not because we are trying to do it all ourselves.

What can we do when our prayer life gets this way? The Lord made clear to me after I heard “the work of prayer” that I needed to “take a praise break.” It’s not my works of prayer, nor the amount of time I spend at it, nor my many words that make the difference. It’s the One we worship and praise, the One we serve, Who makes the impossible possible, and Who changes hearts and lives as a result of our praying with hearts yielded to Him. Father God is worthy of our praise – always! I must put on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness (Isaiah 61:3,) and stay in that place of praise until I find that weight being removed in His Presence. From this place, I will be able to take up the easy yoke of prayer to which Jesus referred.

Matthew 11:28-30 NIV ²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Certainly Jesus had a yoke and a burden of prayer, but how could it be easy and light? We don’t have record of everything He prayed each time He pulled away to spend time with the Lord. But He must have spent much time simply praising and worshipping Him, giving Himself completely to His Father. And He wasn’t just getting His “praise time” in prayer out of the way so He could move on to the real prayer for the needs of all the people of the world. Perhaps there were times He never left that place of praise during His prayer time. Yet, He was being led by the Spirit, so Father God was able to accomplish everything through Him that He had planned before the foundation of the world! Praise is not just to make God feel good. It is prayer all by itself, and it accomplishes much in the spiritual realm. Jesus understood this and managed to remain in that place of rest with an easy yoke and light burden. Let’s learn from Him so we can live like Him more and more. Let’s take a praise break. Hallelujah!

© Copyright 2004 Kay V. Stocking