A recent post at Under the Cover of Prayer asked, “Is Prayer Your Steering Wheel?”
It’s worth reading the whole article (the link is in the title). What has come back to me repeatedly this week stems from this quote:
I could take a few moments and ask for direction and inspiration. Before I start to make dinner I could take a moment and ask for help in achieving a balanced tasty meal. Before I go to tap dancing lessons I could stop and focus my mind on God, asking for calmness and the ability to recall the steps and do my best.
Am I flipping from activity to activity without stopping to thank God, to seek His favour and ask for the Holy Spirit to be present as I go about each task? (read the full post: “Is Prayer Your Steering Wheel?“)
Most of my mornings begin with an informal prayer committing the day (and my loved ones) to God’s care and leading, and it’s understood that God is God and whatever I do is open to His leading.
But, like Jan asks in quote above, how often do I consciously stop and commit my current activity to Him? Submit it to Him? Acknowledge His right to direct, shape… or interrupt it?
If I’m writing, working on homework for a course, driving, attending a funeral, preparing a meal… those are just some of the times the question has come up. Each time, I’ve stopped for a quick prayer.
It’s probably not bringing anything into better alignment, but it’s reminding me Who’s leading, and that whatever it is I’m doing needs to be seen as service to Him.
I think these short commitment-prayers will make me more able to see God’s gifts, to see His love for us and to show it to others. And they’ll remind me to listen for His opinions rather than formulating my own.
What do you think?
Janet,
Maybe we sometimes “forget” to pray because we are so focused on ourselves, instead of our Creator and Savior, who gives us the breath we breathe…. We forget that God is all around us and knows our every thought and feeling…. He even knows our future…. Oh how we need to keep Him in remembrance throughout every day…. Thank you for this post.
Amen to that, Margaret.
I know people have different views on what it means to “pray without ceasing,” but I think this is one of the ways we obey Him in this. I think this kind of prayer also makes us more sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s leading.
And yes…I’m just reading this post now. (grin)
Stephanie, I need to go back and more carefully read the links to background on the Jesus Prayer and learn more, but I remember reading that in one of them–about it being a good lead-in to praying without ceasing. Anything that makes us more sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s leading is good to me!