Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

Those are the first words to the childhood prayer that most of us learned during our formative years. Each night, we would kneel at our bedside or curl up under the covers and with our Mom or Dad, kneeling beside us; we would pray that God would watch over us and take us to heaven if we failed to make it through the night.

For so many of us, unfortunately, that prayer was the highlight of our prayer life.

What do I mean by such a harsh and uncaring statement? Simply put….our young hearts were unfettered with the woes of this world and we prayed simply and honestly to our Heavenly Father….trusting that He would not fail us. But now that we have matured, our prayer life is often cluttered with appointments, to-do-lists, engagements and social obligations, not to mention a host of church and religious meetings that require our attention.

So, we cram in a few minutes of prayer at the start of a meeting or whisper a “God, I really need you help” hail Mary as we bolt into traffic, running late for a scheduled appointment. At night, we climb into bed and as we pull the covers up, we thank God for His protection during the day and ask for His safekeeping during the night….and before we finish the litany of the things we need to ask Him to do for us, we have fallen asleep.

Now, I know this is not everyone nor does it happen like this all the time; but my thought today is that we need to become prayer warriors as evidenced in the book of Colossians, the fourth chapter, where Paul begins his writing by saying, “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us that God may open a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ.” Colossians 4:2-3

It is in the same chapter, just a few verses beyond, that he extols the prayer life of one of his companions in Christ; “Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Jesus Christ, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.” Colossians 4:12

Did you catch that? This young follower of Christ struggled…toiled …work tirelessly in his prayer life to pray that those who knew Christ would stand mature to know and to do the will of God. His prayer life was a struggle; not in finding what to say, but in finding the time, energy and commitment to spend quality moments in prayer for his fellow believers….but as we see by this passage, he made that commitment and received the adulation of the great apostle.

So my questions for each of us today….for whom are we struggling to pray? What issues or concerns need our prayerful consideration? Are we just paying lip service to God when we shout out a few religious platitudes, followed by an Amen or are we serious about prayer …about communicating with our Heavenly Father?

Only you know the “true” nature of you prayer life…. Only you can determine if it is worthy of praise and recognition as experienced by Paul’s cohort, Epaphras. Though we pray not for the praise or recognition of others, we do pray for others to stand tall.... to walk the walk, to talk the talk, and to in all things be salt and light to the world around us.

Take time today to pray…steadfastly…unceasingly…unwaveringly…unashamedly; though it may be a struggle, it will be well worth your time and effort …..Do it before it is time to call it a day.…after all, your Heavenly Father is just waiting to hear from you.

Struggling in the body…confident in His Spirit,
WPQ

Poem for the day: (excerpt from Bent…not Broken!)

So when life’s storm clouds gather and your heart is filled with pain;
Just pray to the Father and like a gentle rain,
He’ll wash away your anguish; He’ll vanish every care.
He’ll grant your every heart’s desire through the power of your prayer.

WPQ 1998