Monday Morning Lift

Good Monday morning!

I don’t know how big your living room is, but if it’s about average size, and you have bookshelves lining the four walls from floor to ceiling, your shelves would hold about 1% (I’m guessing here) of the books written on prayer, the subject of our devotional piece. Out of curiosity, I did a search of the Library of Congress’ One-hundred-thirty-five million book inventory for those with prayer in the title. Here’s the verbatim answer I received: “Your search retrieved more records than can be displayed. Only the first 10,000 will be shown.” You thought I was exaggerating, didn’t you?

No doubt we’ve all found at least some of our reading about prayer to be beneficial. I can’t speak for you, but I would be surprised if you too haven’t more often been left with a sense of inadequacy, even failure, in your personal prayer experience after reading what the “experts” have to say about effective prayer practices.

Rather than piling-on with more “how tos” and “if onlys,” I call to mind the Apostle Paul’s counsel on prayer which on its face is incredulous, but which within the full context of Scripture delivers welcomed consolation.

“Pray without ceasing,”1 was among a series of concise exhortations Paul gave to believers experiencing persecution in the young church at Thessalonica.2 Needless to say, Paul didn’t have in mind that his parishioners were to suspend all activities of daily living, hole up on their knees in a private corner of their home and engage in 24/7 pleadings with God. He wasn‟t dealing primarily with the frequency, mechanics, or for that matter, the intensity of their prayers. Rather, Paul was encouraging a perpetual inclination of one’s mind and heart’s desire toward God, a continuous admission and acceptance of forgiveness for one’s waywardness and dependence on God‟s faithfulness in sustaining the relationship; all while being fully engaged in the hurly burly pressure and complexity of one‟s existence in this alien world.

Shortly before returning to his Father, Jesus said that his leaving was good for those of us remaining, because in so doing he would send each believer the Comforter, none other than the very Spirit of God. He was saying in effect that this one he was sending would function as a personal prayer partner.

It wouldn’t be a prayer partner who only made himself available when called to ask if he was interested in getting together for prayer. No, he would take up residence in the believer’s spirit, thereby being intimately aware of every detail of his host’s personal needs, aspirations, failures, pleasures, and passions as well as his or her concerns and desires for others. The Holy Spirit would assure his host, who at times wouldn’t even know how to phrase praises and petitions, with: “I’ve got you covered. I’ll interpret even the inaudible groaning in your spirit and bring those matters to the throne of grace on your behalf.”

Thank you, Partner! I couldn’t do without You.

Ray Seaver

1. 1 Thes. 5:17 (KJV)
2. 1 Thes. 5:13b – 22 (NIV) [excerpts] Live in peace with each other…; Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances. Do not quench the Spirit. Hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil.

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Monday Morning Lift contains 105 short essays, each of which were written and distributed weekly over the past nearly three years via Email as a short devotional reading entitled the Monday Morning Lift. Learn more about the book at www.mondaymorninglift.com