How is your prayer life?

Thursdays I usually take sometime to refresh, keep my sanity, or what every you would say. This Thursday I took a good friend fishing with me. As we were driving to the lake we discussed all sorts of things. In one of those conversation it when to my friends work place in the middle East. He was telling me how they have to provide a space for the Muslims on his crew to pray during their prayer hours. Then he said something that caught my attention. He mentioned how the rugs that these Muslims used to pray were worn out from them kneeling on them. Man it hit me like a ton of bricks. It sounded like this; "How is your prayer life?" Ouch!! We say that we believe in the One True Living God. We say that we have surrendered our lives to Him and that we want to know what His will is. We say that we worship Him. But have we spent so much time before Him that those spots literally show signs of worship? That is real! I may be able to say that I serve the Only Sovereign God, but can I say that I have to get another "prayer rug" because I have worn out the one I have? Would we be embarrassed to stop during the day and pull out our "prayer rug" and worship God in open spaces? Ouch!! We see the religious rights that Muslims have, but complain because Christians do not have any. But what do they see? When do they see our dedication to our God? When do we stand against decreasing rights for Christians? The Muslim faith is increase in America even as I write this. (Not the fastest growing or largest) No wonder! People see people who are devoted to a belief system and are not afraid to show it. Some of you are probably mad right now. But that is a thing called conviction! I do not support the Muslim faith, but I know that if we say our God is the True God, we have somethings to back up first. If you are a hater right now, let me share this with you, statistics tell us that a typical believer will die without leading a single person to a life saving relationship with Jesus Christ. Ask yourself, "Who was the last person I led to Christ?" Ouch!! Let me go deeper, do people around you everyday even know you are a follower of Jesus Christ? If that question makes you upset, the answer is obvious. My point is not to upset who you are but awaken who you say you are in Jesus Christ. Muslims do not have a savior who died for their sins. Muslims do not have a King that was raised from the grave. Muslims do not have a God who has personally saved them for all of eternity, yet they openly devote themselves to their god. Christianity has a Savior who has done all of those things. Christianity has a God who became flesh and personally redeemed us for all of eternity, yet who knows? Christians get defensive when things like this are spoken with truth, because they know it is true. And it all comes down to the original question: "How is your prayer life?" Are we having the carpet changed in our living rooms, bedrooms or offices because we have worn holes in it from devoting ourselves to the worship of our God? Do people make fun of us because we pull out our "prayer rugs" during the day and openly worship our God? I am not saying you have do that to be a Christian, but rather identifying some inconsistencies with our declaration about our God. The Muslim faith in American has very little interest in outreach, because they have people wanting to know more about their faith. Christianity has to dedicate massive amounts of time to just "encourage" Christians to share their faith in the Savior Jesus Christ. And yet the average believer dies without leading anyone to the faith they say they have. It all comes down to the question again, "How is your prayer life?" If our God is not worthy of our time to worship Him, He will not be worthy of us sharing Him with anyone. If we will not devoted worthy time to seeking His face and His plans for our lives, no one will ever know He is our God. If we will not demonstrate our faith before the world we live in, they will never desire the faith we so easily say we have. The world wants authentic faith. They want what they know others truly believe in. Christians have slipped into this horrible belief that just because they label themselves Christians they have the corner on the market. But the truth is opposite. While we are trying to get believers to pray in their closets, Muslims are telling their followers to pray out loud. Islam is not the answers but simple provides observations about belief systems.
What do we do?
1. Pray at home. If we will spend them time praying alone, we will be better equipped to live our faith in the public eye. We will know what God want us to do and to say. I have young believers ask me all the time, "how do you know when you hear from God?" I always encourage them to pray. If you talk with someone long enough you will learn their voice.
2. Pray with your family. Set the tone in your home. Most Christians do not pray today because they were not shown the importance of prayer in their homes as children. That does not have to be true today or for your home. You can set the tone in your home. You can show your family that God is worthy of worship. Husbands lead your family to pray, wives help your husbands in this leadership by reminding them after a busy day. Children, encourage the times you spend with your dad and mom praying. If we can not pray with our family we will not pray and should not pray with others.
3. Pray with friends. Before you play golf, work, go shopping, go hunting or fishing ask to pray. I have to be reminded of this sometimes too. Even if that friend is not a believer, you can show him/her that your God is worthy of worship. Very few non-believers resist prayer.
4. Pray for those serving you and helping you. We were in a restaurant the other day and asked the waitress if we could pray for her and she said she would pray with us! Wow, she did not even poison our food! But we made sure she knew someone cared. Intentional.
5. Pray immediately when someone shares a need or request. Do not wait until later. You will forget! If someone goes out of their comfort zone to ask you to pray, it must mean a lot to them. Therefore it should mean a lot to you. Let them know that your God is worthy by stopping whatever you are doing and pray right there! Let them hear how to pray and that you spoke their needs to the God you say you believe can help.
6. Pray always. This may seem impossible but it is very powerful. This simply involves starting a conversation with God as soon as you wake up in the morning and closing it when you finish your day. Through out the day you are just having a dialogue with Him. When something comes up that you need help with, you just use that as a point of conversation. Better yet, your mind is set on Him and open to Him in a way that you may find yourself praising instead of just requesting. If your prayers are continual, your understanding of what He wants for you will be the same.
7. Pray when you do not want to. I know, you do not deal with this. You want to talk to God all the time! You never have a pity party and "held your breath." You probably never get mad at God either! Good for you, but I have. I have said to God, "I really do not want to talk to you right now, but here I am." You may not have a lot to say, but you are remaining in the posture of worship even when your mind is not. By simply posturing in prayer, you find a peace that seems to strengthen you. If you do not want to pray but you do anyway, it is a defense to the pride that is tempting you not to. Praying when you do not want to, is an attack on the flesh that is causing you to pout in the first place.You may not get what you think you should get out of it, but you actually overpowered your rebellion from God. If you only prayed when you wanted to, you would never pray.

Seven ways to increase your prayer life. They are only good if we exercise them. Your prayer life may not be the best but it can be better. You may not be wearing our the carpet, but you could. Prayer is more than the spiritual vending machine we have come to use it as, it is worship before the One True Living God that changes our lives.