God bless.

However, when I put my request before Him and continue to pray His will, then I am staying in a place of surrender. When God asks us to place things into His hands, I believe He is asking us to enter into His heart for the situation through prayer.

Praying without ceasing also relates to so many things–praying for those who suffer around the world for their faith, praying that we be changed into the likeness of Christ in our lives, praying for the leading of the Lord in each decision we face as we go through our days. To pray without ceasing is to recognize that everything belongs to Him.

Sufficient Grace–There are times and seasons in our walk with the Lord. Spiritual disciplines do not bring us favor from God–they are a tool for building intimacy but not the means of our salvation.

This past year, I returned to teaching after a 7 year hiatus. I have learned in this season that the most important thing is staying in communion with the Lord on a daily basis. What that looks like from day to day may differ. Some days, I have the opportunity to pray and read the Word in the afternoon, others in the evening (and a few in the mornings).

Because my husband is in full-time ministry, many of our counseling times or ministry obligations take place in the evening. I spent a lot of time chastising myself for not being up for an hour in the morning before leaving for work. Going to bed after midnight many nights made it difficult to be up early. God reminded me, what matters is being with Him. Would I love to be up early in the mornings? Absolutely! But I cannot let my expectations (or man’s) keep me from intimacy with the Lord because I don’t feel like I measure up to what someone else is doing–and neither should I stand in judgment of another.

The point is to be in the Word and to pray.

With that said, there have also been times in my life where my devotional and prayer life was in a shambles. I had no problem spending two hours watching television in an evening but couldn’t spend even twenty minutes in devotional time with the Lord.

I was sharing with someone recently that when it comes to passion for the Lord, we want God to fix our passion problem. But I think that’s a misplaced expectation. When it came to worship in the tabernacle and the temple, the priests were directed not to let the fire go out by keeping the wood readily in place.

My life is to be an altar. My role is to keep the wood stocked (spending time in the Word and in prayer regardless of my feelings, not to forsake the assembling together with others, the consecration of my life to Him); then He brings the sustaining fire of His presence.

We do not want to fall under any of the enemy’s distractions–whether that be apathy or condemnation. It is by His empowering grace we have been saved . . . and it is by that same empowering grace that we continue growing in the Lord.

The amount of time spent in prayer (I speak with care here) is not the issue, but the amount of time spent with God is. God can accomplish more with an earnest prayer of “Lord, Help!” than 3 hours of passionless or misguided “prayer”.

Don’t beat yourself up; remember that God knows your heart and in due season will bring you to a place where both you and He can enjoy your heart-felt interludes. Besides, whenever we beat ourselves up, which is not our job, we leave room for the enemy of our souls to creep in and pull us into condemnation.

Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand. (Rom 14:4 NKJV)

You belong to Him. Let Him tell you how much more you need to do in prayer. But treat yourself as he does – with sufficient grace.