Too Busy Not to Pray!

This week, we have another 24-7 prayer week as part of our commitment to have one a month (with regualr breaks) across Guildford over the course of the year.

While in the prayer room, the phrase 'Too busy not to pray' has come into my head a few times. As you may or may not know, this is the title of a book by an American church leader named Bill Hybels. In his book, he makes the point that rather than busyness being a reason not to pray, it is in fact a reason to pray. I know for myself, this is a busy time of year and I'm sure it is for you to, but I believe God wants us to seek Him even more in this time so that He can speak our identity over us, which is in Him and not in what we do (which doesn't mean He doesn't care about what we do or sees is as unimportant). He wants to give us His perspective as we see that He is above everything we are facing and that He has a plan and purpose for our life and that He is faithful to His promises.

A passage of scripture that has helped me in these times has been Philippians 4:6-7;"Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."

Of course, we don't have to be in a prayer room to pray or to experience God's peace, but one thing I have observed from the life of Jesus, is that in His busyest times, he would retreat somewhere alone to pray (sometimes overnight). He knew the importance of getting away from the situations He was in and spending time with the Father. This is the beauty of the prayer room and my encouragement to you is to try and get away from your situations and spend some time with the Father either in a prayer room (check out www.24-7prayer.com to see how you would go about setting one up) or by the beach or in your cupboard or on a walk. It requires discipline, but it is worth it!

We don't have to spend hours alone, but I believe that God is just longing to show us His love and to speak it over us in the midst of the chaos around us.

Let's not allow the busyness of life to have rule and reign over us.

That place belongs to Jesus and Jesus alone.