steadfast prayer

 

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.

Colossians 4:2

Every day I pray. That's 365 days a year. And I have been doing for the most part since I was 7 1/2 years old. Let's see now... if I prayed just once a day, the math works out to be a number just north of sixteen thousand prayers. That's a whole lot of praying. But in all that profusion of prayers, I will admit this... I don't think I have been characterized as being steadfast in prayer. I've been much more consistent about worry and trying to fix things all by myself. Prayer as this command gives it, does not come naturally to me. I have to discipline myself to obey it.

Yet this command tells me to be steadfast, to be alert, and to be thankful in prayer. These are all prayer commands Jesus began teaching with His disciples, warning them to watch and pray lest they be tempted. Prayer then is a soldier's duty. Steadfast prayer is a saint's self-discipline.

And so each morning as I begin my day in scripture and wrap up time in the Word, I turn to prayer. I pray God's Word back to Him and then I offer thanks, worship, and my heart's requests to God, sometimes in my tears, sometimes in my doubts, sometimes frankly with only a dry sense of duty driving me to do it. But all of those feelings are trumped by the faith to simply believe God hears and answers prayer. And that is the secret behind being steadfast in prayer. I pray, because I believe the gospel, believe Jesus, believe the Word of God, and know that God hears me.