Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.
Colossians 4:2, NLT*
If we devote ourselves to prayer, it will become an essential part of our daily lives. We’ll find a quiet time to be alone with the Lord to worship, to listen and to speak. We’ll also carry the attitude of prayer with us through the day.
With a mindset of prayer, trouble won’t be something to fight, to complain or fret about. We can lift every struggle to God, as often as needed. Good things won’t be sources of pride or security – or possessiveness. We can thank the Giver and listen for how He might want to use them for His greater good.
Thankfulness in everything doesn’t mean we’re happy about the bad things. It means we’re thankful for a God who invites us to bring Him every need, who has a good plan and the power to complete it, and who loves and never leaves us.
What do you think? Looking at this from a human perspective, I could dismiss it as impossible. Ridiculous. A fantasy.
But on the other hand, wouldn’t you love to be able to live that way? Think of the deep-down sense of peace and security, no matter what life might throw at us.
We can’t just say “yes, God, I’ll live like this, and be suddenly changed – although He may make a dramatic shift that gets us well on the way.
This is a lifetime’s learning, a maturing into life with Jesus. It will take practice, and there’ll be setbacks, but the Holy Spirit within us can change us – if we’ll cooperate.
Father God, You know how many times prayer is not my first response. Or when I give you a problem and then take it back to carry on my own. This isn’t the life of glad, dependent obedience that You want to grow in me. Please help me learn to bring everything to You and to listen to You. Teach me to devote myself to prayer – to communicate with You – and to be alert and thankful. Thank You that You never leave us alone.
∞
Steve Green‘s song, “Jesus, I am Resting, Resting,” captures this idea of prayerful devotion.
*New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.