By: Dale Weckbacher
Romans 12:11-13
Do not be slothful in
zeal, be fervent in spirit,[a] serve the Lord.12 Rejoice
in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.13 Contribute
to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
(ESV)
For those of us who have had the privilege of having indoor
plumbing all our lives, priming a pump is a foreign concept. I encourage you to watch this short video to
see what is involved in priming a pump (Video).
(1) As you can see from the video, once the pump
is primed, the water flows easily with little effort.
Unfortunately, many only pray when things go bad and since
they do not regularly pray, they find it difficult. For this reason, we must keep the pump of
prayer primed in our lives by,
1)
Connecting – What is prayer? It is our means of communicating with our
savior and creator God. However, as with
any communication, we must strive to maintain a connection to keep the lines of
communication open. We maintain the
connection by setting aside time daily to pray individually and corporately
praying in our churches and small groups or classes. As easy as this sounds, many including myself
can struggle with this due to our busy schedules. I love my morning cup of coffee and as a way
of reminding me to pray daily, I share my time over my morning cup of coffee
with God in prayer. I call it, having
coffee with the Lord. If you too
struggle with maintaining this regular connection, find some way to remind you
to make this important daily connection.
2)
Consistency – In addition to regular connection
with someone, we must also be consistent in our communication with others. A man’s wife once asked him if he loved her
after many years of marriage to which he said, “I told you I loved you on our
wedding night.” I’m sure he still loved
her but she needed to consistently hear him say it. Our prayer life too must have a consistency and
not just something we did once or do occasionally. The Lord’s prayer provides a pattern to
follow when praying (Matthew 6:9-13). As
a child I remember my mother having me memorize this prayer and repeating it
every night before going to sleep. While
this is a good way to memorize scripture, the purpose of this prayer was to
provide a pattern for consistency in our prayers and not something to
repetitively recite. The pattern of
Lord’s prayer is as follows,
c.
Acknowledging God’s will is going to be done on
earth just as it is done in heaven (Matthew 6:10)
3)
Continuity – God is always with us. With this powerful thought in mind, keeping
the pump of prayer primed must also include praying continually. This does not mean we are to go around
talking out loud to God for others who do not understand our faith might begin
to think we are going insane. Continuity
means continually bringing things to God as we go about our daily affairs. Just as our first reaction to being hungry or
thirsty is to find something to eat or drink, our first reaction when things
get difficult during our day should be to pray.
Also, when we hear something in the news or someone comes to mind, our
reaction should be to pray. Getting in
the habit of communicating with God continually throughout the day makes this
reaction more automatic.
Just as a pump must be primed for the water to flow easily,
we must keep the pump of prayer flowing in our lives by staying connected,
being consistent praying according to the pattern provided in scripture, and
praying continually throughout the day knowing God is always with us. Our world desperately needs prayer which
means we as God’s people must keep the pump of prayer primed in our lives. Will you join me in keeping the pump of
prayer primed in your life so that the water of our prayers can freely flow
into a lost and dying world in desperate need of prayer?
1. Shinejah. DIY Well with manual pump -
priming. www.youtube.com. [Online] Youtube. [Cited: February 13, 2017.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbzrU-tWx6E.
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