One of the biggest obstacles to prayer in our day is the feeling that prayer is a waste of time.
I am busy in our church's prayer ministry, but I often find myself doing other things when I could be praying.
Michael Evans felt like that about prayer until he ran into a brick wall - burnout. Active in ministry, he found himself stretched too thin. His wife recognized the symptoms of burnout and suggested he take some time off, rest and decide what he was going to do.
He wandered down to a raging river running through a nearby canyon and simply sat, enjoying nature. He did this for six weeks - not speaking or reading. Gradually, he began opening up to God.
"During this time, God planted the seed that began to germinate and grow into a desire to spend significant time alone with him," Evans writes in his book Why Not Waste Time With God?
He adds: "The idea of simply being with him - doing absolutely 'nothing' but being with him - was a tough one to overcome. Now I cannot imagine not doing it. Some would say I am wasting time, but I have come to see it as crucial for survival."
For many of us, the purpose of prayer is to tell God what we need. The idea of simply sitting in silence in his presence is foreign to us.
But Evans says there are great benefits from resting in God's presence such as:
Jesus said in John 5:19 that he could only do what the Father was doing - he depended on his close relationship with the Father to carry out his task on earth. In John 15:5, he said that without him, we can do nothing.
If that is true, how can we carry out what God wants us to do without a close relationship with Jesus?
When you think of it, the psalmist David loved wasting time with God. In Psalm 27:4, he wrote:
"One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple."
David was so successful in seeking God that he was called "a man after God's own heart".
That is as good a recommendation as any for spending time in silence with God.
I am busy in our church's prayer ministry, but I often find myself doing other things when I could be praying.
Michael Evans felt like that about prayer until he ran into a brick wall - burnout. Active in ministry, he found himself stretched too thin. His wife recognized the symptoms of burnout and suggested he take some time off, rest and decide what he was going to do.
He wandered down to a raging river running through a nearby canyon and simply sat, enjoying nature. He did this for six weeks - not speaking or reading. Gradually, he began opening up to God.
"During this time, God planted the seed that began to germinate and grow into a desire to spend significant time alone with him," Evans writes in his book Why Not Waste Time With God?
He adds: "The idea of simply being with him - doing absolutely 'nothing' but being with him - was a tough one to overcome. Now I cannot imagine not doing it. Some would say I am wasting time, but I have come to see it as crucial for survival."
For many of us, the purpose of prayer is to tell God what we need. The idea of simply sitting in silence in his presence is foreign to us.
But Evans says there are great benefits from resting in God's presence such as:
- Peace beginning to settle over your whole being;
- Understanding how special you are to God;
- Approval of man becoming less of an issue;
- The desire for being in the spotlight fading; and
- Starting to hunger for more of God.
Jesus said in John 5:19 that he could only do what the Father was doing - he depended on his close relationship with the Father to carry out his task on earth. In John 15:5, he said that without him, we can do nothing.
If that is true, how can we carry out what God wants us to do without a close relationship with Jesus?
When you think of it, the psalmist David loved wasting time with God. In Psalm 27:4, he wrote:
"One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple."
David was so successful in seeking God that he was called "a man after God's own heart".
That is as good a recommendation as any for spending time in silence with God.
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