Imagine for a minute that you have this friend, they're one of the most important people in your world. You go out of your way to always be there for them, always willing to listen when they need to vent or offer a shoulder to cry on or support when things aren't going well. It doesn't matter if they sound like the adult equivalent of a three year old throwing a tantrum or Bella whatshername from Twilight, you are always ready and willing to listen. You would drop everything at a moments notice for them.
Now imagine that this friend decided to only talk to you for five minutes a day, or maybe five minutes a week. Imagine if they spent those five minutes updating you on superficial things, checked their phone three times to see the time and once more to reply to Cindy Lou's message about the party next week.
How would you feel?
I'm pretty sure you'd be pretty upset. You've invested so much in this person and you love them so much and you want to know how they're going and how you can support them and the serious things and all they want to talk about is how happy they are about the cricket score? You dropped everything to answer their call and got five minutes of gossip and hearsay and at the end of the call have heard next to nothing about how they're going.
I would be shocked if you were ok with this turn events.
Which begs a question. If this isn't an ok way for us to be treated by someone we care so much about...
Why is it ok for us to do it to God?
God who loved us so much he gave up everything He had to clear a way for us to have relationship with Him and to be able to talk to Him at all times in all places.
And yet so often we relegate him to five minutes after our Bible reading for the day, or worse tack our “amen” onto the end of the five minute prayer at church each week and hope that will be enough.
It's not.
When the God of the universe came down from Heaven to be murdered on the cross He did not do it so we could more easily update him on the sports scores and how happy we are about so and so's life/relationship/experience. He's God,He knows.
Take a minute to think - when's the last time you prayed without checking your phone? When's the last time you prayed about the serious things in your life? Heck, when's the last time you prayed for more than the five minutes you needed for your “Thank you, Sorry, Please” prayer?
I will freely confess that I'm terrible at this, this post is as much a written rebuke to myself as it is a challenge for anyone else.
Just think, we have a God about whom we can say “I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13) and yet we rarely actually stop to ask Him for that strength. Imagine what we could do if we spent more time asking for strength to do things, more time asking Him to act in, through and with us!
We are commanded to “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). Imagine how much more would could do if before anything else we stopped to seek His kingdom, to seek His blessing in whatever we are about do, to invite him to participate in every aspect of our life. Think of how much more powerful a witness we could be in our workplace if we invited God to partner with us and be with us before every shift, think of how much more fruitful our coffee dates, bible studies, ministries and church services could be if we stopped to seek God's participation before we started.
My church has a prayer meeting 15 minutes before our young adults service starts, it averages 6 people and 10 minutes. I can't help but wonder how much more our church could do if even half the service turned up and prayed for an hour or more. How much more powerful would our outreach be if we lived our lives in continuous prayer, if we spent half an hour or even an hour in fellowship with God in prayer, if we stopped to seek God before every endeavour, if we stopped every time we saw or heard something that we could pray for and prayer right then and there?
Think how much better this piece of writing could have been if I'd remembered to pray before I started instead of jumping straight in...
The Shepherd is listening, but the lambs are silent.
