Just curious, How many minutes do you pray a day? According to several surveys taken from North American Christian Pastors, the average pastor prays only 7 minutes a day. Another survey states that pastors pray less than 15 minutes a day. And the most generous survey stated that pastors prayed 37 minutes a day. (Paraphrased from Dave Earley’s Book, “Prayer:The Timeless Secret of High Impact Leaders,” 2008, p. 1).
Dave Earley wrote, “Prayer allows God to do more in days, hours, minutes, or even seconds than we could accomplish without Him, in months, or even years, of work.” (Prayer, p. 5). If this is true and I know for fact that it is, why is it that the average pastor spends less than 22 minutes a day praying for the needs of his ministry, his congregation, and his own family? And if this is the norm, I can only imagine how long professing Christians pray each day? If we truly knew, the answer to that question, it would be shocking!
The American Church is under attack and is in a spiritual warfare with the evil one. Every Christian Believer must be on their knees and praying for our nation, state, community, church, church leadership, the sick, those in need, our own families, and the list could go on. If we want to see our nation turn back to God, we must be praying. If we want to see God working in our community and our nation, we must be praying and doing it in a serious manner.
What has happened to the Wednesday Night prayer meetings at churches around the nation? And what has happened where churches no longer have a Sunday night service? Have we become so complacent with the status quo that we no longer need to worship God as well as learn & study His Word? Prayer is as important as eating food to survive. It is the the medium that will sustain us in our walk and communication with Christ Jesus! Lack of communication with our Heavenly Father and Christ Jesus means that our relationship with our Lord is not where it should be.
I implore each of you that if you would earnestly seek our Father through Christ Jesus in prayer, your lives will change. Your problems will get resolved. You will experience the Living Christ in ways that you cannot even imagine! Jesus wants to hear from each of you. Won’t you place your trust in Him and pray and communicate with our loving Father? As Dave Earley said, prayer can save you an enormous amount of time. I truly believe that our God is still in the healing business. God is still in the doing business. He is still doing miracles. Praying to Him will pave the way for answers to prayer in ways that we may never understand. Just have faith and trust like a child. Pray and start to watch for answers!
References: Dave Earley, “Prayer:The Timeless Secret of High Impact Leaders” (Chattanooga, TN: Living Ink Books, 2008), 1-5.
Copyright © September 1, 2019. The Lantern & Shield Times, a Division of Marketplace Evangelism Ministries Inc. All Rights Reserved.