We must pray continuously. Praying must form part of our lifestyle. And we must believe that God hears us and that He wants to answer prayers within his will. But I do know that we ourselves are not always in a good space when we pray. At times we don’t even have words to pray. But we can always know that God understands where we are.

And pray continuously.

Also, ensure that your conscious is clean and that you’re not caught up in a fight with anybody. It is our responsibility to sort out the frogs in the pipe. Listen what Paul says: ⁸Since prayer is at the bottom of all this, what I want mostly is for men to pray—not shaking angry fists at enemies but raising holy hands to God.

It is not right to simply start praying without first looking at yourself. We must look for the things that aren’t right and sort that stuff out. We must do introspection and if we find discord and conflict, we must sort it out. When we talk to God, we stand on holy ground. That is why it is necessary to make sure that we do not stand before Him with dirty hands and feet.

I found this lovely version of the Lord’s Prayer. It shows exactly what we can do differently when we pray:

I cannot pray OUR if I’m living only for myself.
I cannot pray FATHER if I have not become his child.
I cannot pray IN HEAVEN if I’m still earthbound.
I cannot pray HALLOWED BE THY NAME if I use it in vain.
I cannot pray THY KINGDOM COME if I do not proclaim his Word.
I cannot pray THY WILL BE DONE if I always want my own way.
I cannot pray GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD if I squander my money.
I cannot pray FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES if I do not repent.
I cannot pray AS WE FORGIVE THEM THAT TRESPASS AGAINST US and hold a grudge.
I cannot pray THINE IS THE KINGDOM if I do not serve Jesus.
I cannot pray THE POWER with fear in my heart.
I cannot pray AND THE GLORY if I rule my own life.
I cannot pray FOR EVER AND EVER if I’m not looking forward with expectation to his coming.
I cannot pray AMEN if I do not believe like a child.

Read it again.

Lovely, lovely words, but immediately I realise that I’m too sinful to even start praying, because at times I think only of myself and I don’t want to be like a child. Maybe it’s like that for you too. We struggle to keep to God’s guidelines for our lives and often we are not prepared to acknowledge our part in the matter. Grudges tend to stick and I can mention many more things in our lives where we still fall short. Yes, even our faith where we often struggle to believe like a child.

Do we have to stop praying then? Must we first, and may I be so bold as to say, almost have to become a kind of super Christian before we can pray? No, certainly not. If we have to wait for all these lovely things to fall into place before we can pray, we’ll never start praying.

God understands our struggles and know we cannot get it right. Therefore, He doesn’t care how low we sinners kneel before Him. He doesn’t care what we look like, as long as we pray.

Let’s pray, all the time and everywhere, and while we pray, let’s hear what God wants to say about the things that bothers Him, so that we can get rid of those lumps and start looking more like God’s picture of us.

Scripture

1 Timothy 2:8-15

Reflection

Do you pray?
Do you pray enough?
Do you believe you have to prepare the soil through prayer?

Prayer

Father, I know I stand on holy ground when I talk to You. I don’t want You to look away when I come to You. Have mercy on me and hear my prayer. Show me where I need to change and help me to obey You and do so. Amen.