Blog

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Ephesians 6:18

Do you find you tend to ‘compartmentalise’ your time or other resources between God and the rest of life? To draw some kind of a line between what is His territory and what is yours? Yes, I thought so. Most or all of us do not intentionally exclude Him, but are in a process of being shown areas where we have done so more or less unconsciously.

The danger of compartmentalising our week or our money in this way between God’s part and ours (whereas they are 100% His really) is probably a familiar idea already. But even if we have got past the point of mentally committing these resources to Him fully, how do we then live out that commitment despite the pressures of life?

Today’s Scripture reminds us that our prayer life also needs to be decompartmentalised, and integrated with the rest of our life. While a good quiet time with God in the morning is the best start, the day is long, and we need to be talking to Him about whatever comes up. Nothing is too big or small. It’s a mental habit thing for us: yes, we do have to concentrate on other things, but we can talk to Him about them at odd moments, simply and briefly, and the more we do so, the closer our relationship will be.

One area we can integrate with our prayer life in this way is our news and social media feeds: instead of passively letting them crowd out our brain activity and prayer time as so often happens, we can redeem the time by using them as prayer lists (they are full of people and situations that need a prayer). Another area is the crowds we walk through: instead of just dodging them, let us pray for them too, and also anyone they remind us of! It is a mental habit thing.

Let us integrate our life and prayer compartments and welcome God into more of our life, by being alert and praying in the Spirit for all the Lord’s people on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests – and in particular, by:

• Praising and thanking God for wanting to share in the details of your life, and allowing your prayers to change things through Him.
• Praying your way through the crowds and news and social media feeds, grabbing prompts and opportunities to have a chat with God.