​PRAYER IS THE WORK

In my mid 30’s as I started to engage more with my faith and God, I was encouraged to have a “daily quiet time” with Jesus. This usually meant five minutes of Bible reading and five minutes of prayer—a quick and efficient routine. It wasn’t uncommon for someone at men’s bible study to ask how your “daily quiet time” was going, and for many, it was just another task to check off.

Back then, it was always the part of my day to get done and then move onto the serious work of the day. 

But as I’ve grown in my faith, I’ve discovered the wisdom of saints who believed prayer was the work. They didn’t focus on doing things for Jesus but on simply being with Him. Their lives revolved around staying in God's presence, like the saints in Revelation who sing God’s praises day and night. According to them, this wasn’t just worthwhile—it was the best thing you could do with your life.

In Scripture, people prayed for hours, even days. I think of Joshua at Jericho, marching around the walls for seven days. Jesus prayed all night before choosing his disciples, and in Gethsemane, He prayed so intensely that His sweat mixed with blood. I’ve never come close to that kind of intensity in prayer.

I heard a pastor tell a story about an old preacher. This story was about this old preacher’s work in construction, where he used a plum line to keep things straight. One day this old preacher realized this is what the Spirit does in prayer. The Spirit holds the plum line of Christ up to our lives and hammers us into alignment. Prayer is where the real battle happens. We don’t pray for the work; prayer is the work.

Prayer takes time. It requires slipping past the noise of life and into the silence where God shapes us. Our thoughts and desires are sifted; grudges and pain washed away. When we emerge, we’re aligned with God, ready for whatever comes.

It’s going to take more than a few minutes a day. Honest and true prayer is more than mumbling a few words of gratitude and asking Jesus to fix a few things. It’s placing our thoughts before God and when those thoughts don’t align, letting those thoughts be swept away. 

This is the true work of prayer. It’s the true work of our lives.  
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Peace,
Travis Segar
Pastor for Care and Community