No Sweat

Prayer is hard work. I’m not sure why. Perhaps my scattered mind can’t focus. Perhaps it is so “other” focused that my selfish nature has trouble staying that long on the needs of others. Perhaps my life is too full and I struggle with the time it takes. Not only those things, but I tend to talk in shorter bursts. Since I pray out loud (partly to help me focus), a decent time of prayer seems to tire me out.

Whatever the reason, I’ve been giving this spiritual discipline more attention lately. I realize prayer is a work of God. I wrote “Prayer is Jesus breathing” in MS Outlook® as a reminder that pops up every few days. I’m trying to pray shorter times and more often throughout the day, simply because I do want to talk to God. Most of all, I’m concentrating on the needs of those on my prayer list. I know from personal experience how vital to have someone interceding for you. They value my prayers.

So imagine my surprise at this from Ezekiel 44: “And it shall be, whenever they (the priests) enter the gates of the inner court, that they shall put on linen garments; no wool shall come upon them while they minister within the gates of the inner court or within the house. They shall have linen turbans on their heads and linen trousers on their bodies; they shall not clothe themselves with anything that causes sweat.”

Prayer is sometimes confession of sin, sometimes praise and adoration, sometimes giving thanks, and most often priestly work—standing before God on behalf of others. But don’t sweat. My devotional book says this implies that the ‘work’ of prayer is just as I put in my daily planner—Jesus does it through me, and even though it comes out of my time, and the words come out of my mouth, the power behind it is His, not mine, therefore there should be no human effort or ‘sweat’ involved.

The only times I can remember when prayer was effortless are when something grand has happened (like my nephew’s salvation) and the words just flow out, or when something terrible threatens and I’m asking for God’s help. I seem to need the extremes to unlock it. This tells me that ‘no sweat’ praying is possible. My challenge is to pray effortlessly about the stuff in between the extremes, to talk to God as easily about these things as those extremes. A second challenge is recognizing the barriers to that ‘no sweat’ praying.

My prayer list now has a new item, two words: Don’t sweat. I’m positive God will show me what to get rid of so that will be true about my prayer life.