Getting Down to Business
Every Tuesday morning I meet with four others for a prayer time around a kitchen table. During our 90 minutes together, we claim God’s promise to hear our prayers, and then, one by one, we bring before Him more than 100 requests, each one with a name and a story.
We have our best-laid plans to cover the whole list, but our spiritual enemy has other intentions. And he uses his favorite weapon against us: our fondness for talking.
Typically, our leader arrives with an organized list of that day’s requests, but inevitably we have additions and updates. The danger is to let talking-time gobble up praying-time. Focused, faithful prayer takes determination. If we spend too much time chatting about the requests but not actually praying, it’s as if Jesus is sitting at the table with us but excluded from our conversation.
So how do we stop talking and start praying?
One day I realized we were talking together for 75 of our 90 minutes before ever addressing the Lord. That left 15 minutes to cover 100 requests. As I got into my car that day, I was overcome with sadness. How could we flip-flop our priorities like that, elevating human dialogue over conversation with the Almighty?
The next week we discussed our struggle, and we determined the only way to stop chatting was to sound an alarm—literally. We agreed to set an alarm for an allotted time of talking—and strictly adhere to it.
Though some sharing is always necessary, a blast of noise now stops us from overtalking and underpraying. Old habits die hard, though, and enjoyable conversation tends to shorten our prayer time. When the alarm goes off, one of us might say, “Oh, just one more thing.” Those few words can signal a whole new round of chatting! So we have to hold each other accountable.
The temptation to keep talking is understandable because we are good friends who want to stay current with each other’s lives. But we all agree that our Tuesday prayer time is not for everyday chitchat. We schedule other times to gather for lunch and conversation. No alarms allowed at that lunch table!
But on Prayer Tuesdays, with bulldog determination, we’ve learned to obey our alarm. We steadily improve at inviting our heavenly Father into a full hour of conversation each week. And once in a while, we even start praying before the alarm has sounded!
MARGARET NYMAN blogs at gettingthroughthis.com.
