“Pray continually.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17 NIV
I listened to a great message this week on this verse. The message was actually on spending time with God in prayer. When he started talking about this verse, he challenged his listeners, “How do you pray continually?”
It turns out, for many of us, culture has identified prayer as something that is time consuming. Something that needs to be set apart. Something that has to be reverent, spiritual, intentional.
Prayer is reverent, it is spiritual and it is intententional. It does not however have to be set apart from our daily lives. It isn’t another thing that has to be added to our schedule. It is something that is a lifestyle.
It is something that can be done in 140 characters or less, all day long.
I do believe you should have time that is set aside for God. For me, that is the start of my day. I love to close myself in my prayer closet and begin my day with God. I read His word, I journal, I listen. It’s wonderful. I love to get up at least an hour earlier than my actual day begins and give this time to him. The earlier the better. That’s just the start though. It’s easy to walk away from these quiet times and put God back in His box, or leave Him in my closet and go about my day.
How do we keep that communication with Him going? How do we incorporate it into our day? How does it become a lifestyle?
I realized as I listened to this message it’s a 140 character or less lifestyle for me. It’s continuous and it’s all day.
Why 140 characters? In today’s world, in today’s technology, we have become conditioned to the 140 character limit. We twitter in 140 characters. We text in 140 characters. We even Facebook in 140 characters. We have learned we don’t have to say much to get our point across.
It’s the same way with praying. Praying continuously doesn’t mean long dialogues with eloquent words. It’s keeping in touch with God throughout your day. Letting Him be a part of every day. Unlike your spouse or your best friend, He always answers. He’s waiting on the text, He already has a reply before you even send it.
Short, heartfelt prayers are just as reverent, just as spiritual and just as intentional as long winded ones. Maybe even more so.
Here are examples of a 140 character or less prayers:
“Lord help me.”
“Lord, give me words.”
“Lord, keep my mouth shut.”
“Lord, bless them.”
“Lord, correct them.”
“Lord, show them the way.”
Are you beginning to get the drift? I’m praying in 140 characters or less you will.
“Lord, eyes to see and ears to hear.”
What are your short prayers that keep you in touch with God throughout your day? I’d love to hear them.
140 Characters Or Less
