One time there was a boy at church who got sick. His grandma said she’d ask the church to pray for him. He asked her, “Grandma, am I that sick?” He wasn’t very sick, but that’s how we sometimes look at prayer: something to do when nothing else is left.
Prayer should be our first response. When something bad happens, we should talk with God about it first. When something good happens, we should talk with God about it first. When we need help, when we find something to be thankful for, we should naturally seek to express that to our Creator. But so often we try to do things ourselves before we even think about asking God for help. So often we just enjoy things as if we got them on our own, without even thinking to thank God for them. We sometimes forget to pray when starting projects or starting our days – sometimes even in church ministry!
In the words of A. J. Gordon: “You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed.”
We often don’t realize how empowering and encouraging it is to pray. If we started everything with prayer instead of putting it off until we couldn’t see another option, we would accomplish so much more! If we stopped to thank God for each of our blessings, we would notice more of them and be much happier!
It takes time and effort to train your first response to be that of prayer, but you can pray about it to help!
More on prayer:
On Earth as in Heaven
Prayer
A Little Bit on Praying
The Prayer of a Child
Praying for ALL
Keep Praying
A Prayer Lesson Learned