“I’ll pray for you.”

The lie I’ve told and one heard spoken most often by Christians is, “I’ll pray for you.” we make the promise of prayer but hold off until our Bible time, but life gets busy, and we have to put it off until the morning, then the morning gets busy, and suddenly we’ve forgotten what we’re even supposed to pray for…prayer is the simplest yet most powerful task we can do, but yet it’s the thing we typically reach for last. If you are struggling in your prayer life, I hope to leave you with some encouragement today!

Prayer is not something meant to be done only at the end or beginning of the day. It is something we should do all day! We should be in constant prayer and conversation with God. Prayer doesn’t have to be some big word or a ceremonial type of prayer we see in church, though it can be! This type of prayer can seem very daunting.

Someone we can learn a lot from about our prayer life is David. David loved to talk to God! His prayers were conversational. He cried out to God, got angry with God, asked God questions, and, most importantly, always prayed. He didn’t need a big generic prayer to pray. He just talked with God all the time! Fun fact: David is actually accredited to writing 73 of the Psalms, which are prayers and conversations with God!

The lesson we can draw from David is that he didn’t need to wait until the end of the day or early in the morning to talk to God. David was constantly in conversation and prayer with Him! This is something that we can apply in our lives today.

The beauty of God is that He sent Christ to die for us so that we may have a relationship with Him! This means we no longer have to sacrifice an animal in a temple to talk to God! We have direct access to Him through Jesus at all times. We can pray in the car, while doing a task, while relaxing, in place of scrolling, etc. We have so many opportunities to pray, yet we make ourselves think we need a particular time to sit down to talk to God.

I’m going to hit you with a hard statement: though this special sit-down time is also needed, you always have time to say that prayer you promised. You are never too busy to pray to the one who woke you up this morning, walks with you all day, and never falters His step with you. God gives you all of His time, so when are you going to start giving Him yours?

Next time you say the phrase, “I’ll pray for you,” do it right then. Pray with that person, pray in your head, pray when you get in the car or in a private place—just pray. Prayer changes things.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Matthew 7:7-8