One beautiful warm and rather chilly afternoon after work I decided to attend a faith group meeting. Luckily or should I say led by the spirit the facilitator of the meeting stipulated blatantly after a lengthy bible sharing that we ought to pray 15 minutes or more per day. As rebellious my heart was, I was quickly able to say hell NO. That long, how am I going to manage all that. I’ve got work. I’ve got to eat. I’ve got people to chat with and top of that list is my fiancé, I need to give her ample and quality time. And there is DSTV, I dearly need to watch football. The sport that is so dear to my heart that it tickles my every senses when I am watching. This was an inner dialogue I had in my mind. An obvious route to escape responsibility.
Nonetheless, we often times define Prayer as communication to and with God. It is one of the greatest tools that Christians can use to penetrate the realm of God and forever be in his presence. The most resounding bible passage about prayer that almost always echoes in every Christians mind is one in Matthew 6:5-14. Jesus Christ teaches us about prayer by highlighting the key points, and I can summarize them as follows.
1) When praying we should not pretend like hypocrites do. Praying so that everybody knows that ala kwena balya balapepa (Bemba phrase translated as indeed this individual can pray). Praying for show off. It’s like praying to impress the audiences and instead of praying to converse with God, the silent listener of our every conversation. This synoptically defines why we should pray. What’s the purpose of prayer? I leave that to the readers of this blog to answer.
2) Secondly, is the How. Jesus Christ highlighted and summarized this in the famous “The Lord’s prayer”. It is a cutting edge. It has depth, precision and without gibberish. It is a prayer filled with love. It has parts of exaltation, repentance and redemption, protection, encouragement for strength and supplication. The rest I leave for you to add.
Moreover, to add the icing on the cake, one prayer leader at the meeting once quoted the 4Ps of prayer. Namely, place, position, posture, and passage. These are cardinal points of prayer. I am always reminded that I need to choose a friendly place and welcoming one for prayer. This is based on type of prayer as well. If I intend to pray before bedtime after a long, tiring day at work, a bed is rather a bad place for prayer. It will inadvertently drive me into dream land or Disney land if you like. On the other hand, a footballer can say a short prayer in the dressing room or in the pitch before a match, that is if the environment is enabling. However, one won’t expect an individual to pray and concentrate whilst at a disco. Almost always impossible.
Position is how something is placed. This goes with posture. When speaking to God, we need to show respect. He is the special friend, and we need to relate with him appropriately. This cuts across different cultural ways of praying and expressing respect. Thus there is no harm speaking to and with God when standing, seated, kneeling or sleeping on the ground. The gestures show humility and a sheer act of surrendering, coupled with the out-pouring of one’s heart to God in conversation. Lastly, the final P is passage. By this the context Is bible passage. The bible teaches us how, why, what and when to pray. It gives insights of prayers and one uses bible passages in speaking to and with God. The general idea Is speaking to and with God as a friend.
In summary, allow me to draw you back to my preamble. Remember my response in my heart when told to pray 15 minutes or more. My brothers and sisters, you may have another excuse which may be valid in your own eyes, but it will never be in God’s eyes. We call God, Our father, our friend. Why is it that we can chat tirelessly for hours with earthly friends but never with God our creator? We can spend the whole day on shopping or drinking sprees tirelessly but never with God. We can think of making love all day, eating, working, surfing the internet or watching television because we enjoy and love them, but never with God.
A quiet minute, an hour or a day with him seems like a billion years of boredom and torture. Truth of the matter is that we always create time for things that really are of great and immense value to us so says the wise writers. God Is calling us to dialogue with him every day. It should be a habit. It should be like falling in Love with every day. Even when you don’t have time for him as many claim which is absolutely not true. It is just a devilish trick in our minds. One way of laziness and failure to prioritize. At least say good morning, good afternoon and goodnight to Him (GOD). Just like you converse with others who matter to you and you hold them with profound affection. He is our God, our creator and the one who matter above all else. Remember Prayer opens doors, it heals, and creates intimacy with God. To all the broken hearted, those celebrating, those living in sin. Turn to your knees, and tell them to get back to that hard and uncomfortable floor, that rag in your house and kneel until your knees sore. Break the ground and talk to our creator God. He listens and hears our prayers.
Pray, pray and pray without ceasing, remember we are talking to a beautiful friend and his name is the Lord, our God……THE NEXT TIME YOU WILL ASK ME WHY SHOULD I PRAYER, MY SHORTEST ANSWER WILL BE WHY SHOULD WE NOT PRAY….
Written by Felix Sakala
For questions and contribution, additions and subtractions
Email at sakalafelix91@gmail.com
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