"Apart from Me you can do nothing."
-John 15:5

Everyone is busy. In fact, you’re probably too busy to read this right now. You have stuff to do, things to go buy, a MySpace to check, and people to call. Go ahead. Reading this is probably not a good use of your time anyway. Really. Are you still reading? Good. Because you can’t do any of those things anyway.

We live in the busiest, most fast-paced society in the world. We go from school to work to lessons to practice to church to home and every second in between we’re on our cell phones. Our "to do" lists are longer than ever before. Technology promises that we can "do" everything faster, but it just seems that our "to do" lists are getting longer and longer. Are we really doing/accomplishing more? I believe we are doing less, and I believe it is because the most important "to do" has fallen to the very bottom of the American Church's "to do" list: prayer.

Prayer is about recognizing that everything you do and every event that takes place within a day does not take place to you apart from the will and sovereignty of God. The sight that you are reading this with and the mind with which you understand it are gifts from the very hand of God. “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” Prayer is also depending on God through every event and in everything you do, knowing that He is only pleased with a heart that is full of child-like faith and trust, and that real and lasting fruit can only be borne when we are abiding in the life and love of Christ. “Apart from Me you can do nothing.”

But prayer is also more than this, and much simpler as well. Prayer is Communion with God. It is talking to Him. What, for real? We can talk to God? Did you hear that believer? For real! Wake up church! Get this…we GET to talk to GOD: the God of the BIBLE, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Almighty Creator and Sustainer of the universe, the Author of life and Truth, the all-wise and Righteous Judge, the One who the angels ceaselessly adore, the Great I AM, the never-changing, never-ending, never-failing God, and NOTHING is too difficult for HIM! If we needed more time, He’s the One who made the sun stand still, the One who spoke light into darkness, and the One who loves you and is intimately acquainted with all of your ways! He knows the number of hairs on your head and He knows when you sit and when you rise. And how He loves the sound of your voice! His ears hear the humble cry of His children and His heart fills with joy at the sound of their praises. Hear these promises from God’s Word:

Hebrews 10:19-22

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, His body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith…”

1 John 5:14-15 says,

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, he hears us. And if we know that He hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of Him.”

Too busy to pray just doesn’t make sense! Not only is it an incredible privilege and opportunity, but it is vital to maintaining your relationship with God and a proper perspective on everything you do! Martin Luther once said, “I have so much to do today I shall spend the first three hours in prayer”. Jesus was one of the busiest persons to ever live, and yet He regularly took time out of his schedule to pray. These understood that apart from God, they could do NOTHING profitable for the glory of God and the advancement of His Kingdom. “Apart from Me you can do NOTHING”.

Martin Luther also once said, “As it is the business of tailors to make clothes, and the business of cobblers to mend shoes, so it is the business of Christians to pray!” Church, we must stop neglecting prayer because of our busyness and start making prayer our business.

“IF my people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and PRAY and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and heal their land.”
-2 Chronicles 7:14

Pray Church. Pray.