One night I had the strangest dream...
Dare 2 Share - "For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer..." (I Peter 3:12)
One night I had the strangest dream…I was walking through a city on a frigidly cold morning, and I noticed that every single person I saw was not wearing a coat. They shivered and moaned as I passed them, and they were obviously freezing to death. After seeing this for some time, I finally stopped one of the citizens and asked, “Haven’t you ever heard of coats?”
“Of course I know about coats,” the man replied.
“Then why aren’t you wearing one?” I asked.
“What a fascinating question,” the man answered. “I shall have to look into that.”
A little further down, I came across a woman crouched on the corner hugging herself in an effort to keep warm.
“Why does no one here wear coats?” I inquired. “Don’t you know about them?”
“Believe me,” she said, “we all know quite a bit about coats. We read books about coats, think about coats, and even suggest to each other different ways of making coats. In fact, every week we have a ‘coat enthusiasts’ meeting to talk about great coats of the past, and how much we like them.”
“Then why don’t you wear them when it’s freezing cold outside???”
““What a fascinating question,” the woman answered. “I shall have to look into that.”
It occurred to me that life in this fallen world of ours is a lot like living in a cold, freezing city. The world, the flesh, and the devil hound and harass us like an arctic wind gusting in our face. The only coat we have is prayer. The indescribable privilege of conversing with the Creator of the universe is the one protection and warmth that works.
Why, then, do we not wear our coats? We talk about prayer, sing about it, read books about it, suggest new ways to do it…yet in the final analysis most of us are huddled on the street corner, beaten down by the winds of life.
Do you want the secret to praying? Here it is: the secret to a good prayer life is to pray. No really, that’s it. The Apostle Paul wrote:
“Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all Christians everywhere.” (Ephesians 6:18)
Notice: “at all times” and “on every occasion”. That pretty much covers every hour of the day and each circumstance you may encounter. Look at it this way: every moment of your day presents some opportunity to pray. Don’t just think about it, or talk about it, or wish you did it more: just pray! When you do, you may discover that life isn’t as cold as it really seemed.
Questions:
1) How ‘cold’ is your world right now?
2) When was the last time you ‘wore your coat’ consistently?
3) What is one step you could take to improve your prayer life?
