An Hour of Prayer?

An Hour of Prayer?

The hymn, Sweet Hour of Prayer, calls us to consider something regarding the amount of time that we spend in prayer. Both stanzas of the short little hymn open with the words, “Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer…” Maybe the reason the hymn is so short is so that we’ll have more time to spend in prayer? I know that there is no biblical time requirement to prayer. We are not told that we should spend this amount of time or that amount of time in prayer. But why not consider an hour? After the weather warmed up, I have begun to walk in the mornings, not every morning but most mornings, and I pray as I walk. My walk lasts between 45 minutes to an hour. I begin the first half of my walk by praying for myself and others. You’d be surprised how many people you can think to pray for when you have committed to spend 20-30 minutes doing it. Then on the return trip I spend time meditating on the hymns I’m writing on, or a passage of Scripture or listening to see if God has something He wants to say to me. Though I have attempted things like this in the past, this is the first time in my life that I have been this consistent with an extended time of prayer…and I love it! I can’t say that I’ve noticed much difference in my life…I’m not any taller nor have I had a lot of additional requests answered. However, I have had some of the sweetest times reflecting on God’s word; times that I would not have had without devoting an hour or almost an hour everyday to prayer. Would you consider this? You have the time if you want to make it a priority. I was thinking what the Facebook world would be like if every Jesus follower spent an hour of prayer before posting or commenting or liking. I think some of the negativity would be gone…actually, I’m sure most of the negativity would be gone.

Again, I’m not suggesting there is anything magical or mystical to an hour of prayer but I would encourage you to make it happen. Try it for a while…don’t tell yourself the lie that you don’t have time. You do have time. And you might discover that if you commit that time to prayer you will experience times of refreshing and insight that you have never had before.

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