How often . . . ?

 

The question, “How often should I pray?” is actually in Google even though the NT does say, “Pray without ceasing.” However, I’ve noticed that having a ‘rule’ about prayer does not increase its frequency — feeling weak, needy, or concerned for others is more often why I pray. Praying without ceasing is not easily motivated.

Does feeling a need apply to how OFTEN God does things? Job wondered the same thing. He asked, “How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out? That their calamity comes upon them? That God distributes pains in his anger?”

The psalmist may have wondered the same thing, but answered the question in Psalm 78:38–43 with this:

Yet he, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them; he restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath. He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and comes not again. How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert! They tested God again and again and provoked the Holy One of Israel. They did not remember his power or the day when he redeemed them from the foe, when he performed his signs in Egypt and his marvels in the fields of Zoan.

Speaking for God, Jeremiah thought about how often God forgave His people. He said, “Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, declares the Lord.”

The patience of God show up in how often He forgives His children. It shows up in both the OT and the NT. It is also part of how I should live. For example, in Matthew 18:21, Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus replied, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.” In other words, as often as it is necessary!

Even at that, willingness to be forgiven is also needed. Jesus said in Matthew 23:37, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. What can I do to be more willing to “often forgive” or “pray without ceasing” or to be often engaged in the will of God. It helps to know what Jesus did. John 18:2 tells how “Judas, who betrayed him, knew a certain place, for Jesus often met there with his disciples.” He referred to the garden of Gethsemane where Jesus often prayed. For me, when I focus on Jesus and on the needs of others He gives me a desire to talk to Him. If I focus on myself, my prayer is more often whining rather than praise or intercession.

Another practice produces a change in my focus. Jesus instituted it: “In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.’ ”

His Word also reminds me that the OT priests had to often enter the holy places every year with blood not his own, but Jesus appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He did this once, offering a single sacrifice for all time, then “sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” His focus on being patient with sinners motivated His action and by that action, His often became our forever.