For almost three weeks now, I have had a fairly regular time of Bible reading. Aside from reading the Bible, I was also reading Reuben A. Torrey’s “How to Pray”. It’s in Adobe Acrobat format that you can download free from here. As I read the book, which is surprisingly an easy read for me, I discovered a new dimension to the subject of praying.
I do not call myself a very prayerful person. I pray before I go to sleep and usually ask God for a peaceful and restful time of sleep. I usually “converse” with God when I’m walking. It is at those times that I can reflect on things that God may be dealing with me. I also go to prayer meetings in our church or at our office.
The book exhorts the reader to make prayer time a consistent, persistent, sleepless, overcoming prayer. I admit that I do not pray like this. And with people that pray this kind of prayer, I am envious. I know that I should pray like this. Not because I read it in this book, but because God wants me to. I want to, but more often, I succumb to “slothfulness”. Because of this, I am deeply troubled. Compared to many men of prayer, I am but an atom.
I also read there that Jesus prayed even to the point of sacrificing enough sleeping time or wakes up early than most people just to be able to have a time of prayer. Jesus would usually retreat to a quiet place to be with God the Father and also to pray. How I wish I could do that. I want to. And I’m trying. I pray that God would give me strength. I do not want to start and then sputter mid-stream. I want this to be a continuing exercise. I will need a lot of discipline and determination, not to mention patience from Jesus.
I hope that you, my dear reader, would join me in this challenge. I am not going to prove anything. I want to show Jesus how much I love Him. I want to spend time with Him in prayer. I want to grow in my knowledge of Him through prayer. It’s time to pray…
