Prayer takes Time

Are there not twelve hours in the day? John 11:9

 

 

Who of us has not experienced the difficulty of insufficient time for prayer? At least we tend to excuse ourselves by saying we do not have sufficient time. The late Dr J H Jowett was not sympathetic to such an excuse. "I think one of the cant phrases of our day," he wrote, "is the familiar one by which we express our permanent want of time. We repeat it so often that by the very repetition we have deceived ourselves into believing it. It is never the supremely busy men who have got no time. So compact and systematic is the regulation of their day that, whenever you make a demand on them, they seem able to find additional corners to offer for unselfish service. I confess, as a minister, that the men to whom I most hopefully look for additional service are the busiest men."

 

Let us face the fact squarely and without equivocation –

 

Each of us has as much time as anyone else in the world.

 

As in the parable of the pounds, we have each been entrusted with the same amount of time, but not all so use it as to produce a tenfold return. True, we do not all have the same capacity, but that fact is recognized in the parable, and the reward for the servant with the smaller capacity but equal faithfulness is the same. We are not responsible for our capacity, but we are responsible for the strategic investment of our time.

 

If we consider prayer as a high priority, we will so arrange our day as to make time for it. When we have comparatively little to carry in our case it seems as full as when we have much, because the less we have the more carelessly we pack it. The man who claims to have no time is most likely guilty of "careless packing".

 

What practical steps can be taken to safeguard the securing of sufficient time for prayer?

 

Stop Leaks

Do not consider your day only in terms of hours, but in smaller areas of time. If we look after the minutes, the hours will look after themselves. Few men packed more into a lifetime than Dr F B Meyer. Of him it was said that like John Wesley he divided his life into spaces of five minutes, and endeavored to make each one count for God. One would expect such a programme to create intolerable strain, but not so with Dr Meyer. According to his biographer, "his calm manner was not the sleep of an inactive mind; it was more like the sleep of a spinning top".

Just a little while before his departure he said to a friend,

"I think I am an example of what the Lord can do with a man who concentrates on doing one thing at one time".

 

Mr D E Hoste, successor to Mr Hudson Taylor, in a life acknowledged to be extremely full, always made time for a deep and full prayer-life. He gave prayer priority in his life because he deemed it most important. But he did not arrive immediately at the mastery of his time. "It is easy to waste time," he wrote:

 

"The missionary after breakfast may sit down to read the newspaper, or let time slip by in another way. But this cannot be done in business life. I have found the need of much watchfulness and self-discipline in this matter during my years in the interior... . A sensitive conscience about the use of time needs to be maintained."

 

Study Priorities

Much time which is not actually wasted, is spent on things of only secondary importance.

 

A fool has been described as a man who has missed the proportion of things.

 

Some of us have the unfortunate habit of being so engrossed in the secondary that we have no time left for the primary. We give such undue attention to petty details that matters of major importance are squeezed out. Especially is this the case where prayer is concerned, and our adversary will do all in his power to aid and abet.

 

Check to see whether the essentially spiritual is receiving adequate time, or whether the best is being relegated to a secondary place by that which is good.

 

Our Lord indicated that the secret of successful living was to sacrifice the pearl of inferior value for the pearl of transcendent worth. Are you doing the most important things, or do you procrastinate, substituting the secondary which makes less stringent demands on you? Weigh up carefully the respective values of the opportunities and responsibilities which claim your attention. Omit altogether, or give a very minor place to things of little importance.

 

 John Wesley used to say: "Never be unemployed, and never be triflingly employed".

 

The Impelling Motive

 To effect a radical change in our use of time so as to make more time for prayer will require strength of purpose and a deep dependence on the Lord's enabling. Not all of us naturally possess inflexible wills, but these may be reinforced for we may and should be "strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man".

 

The use of time depends largely on the pressure of motive.

 

Are there motives sufficiently compelling to enable us to change the pattern of our lives, to run counter to long-indulged habits of laxity in the use of time?

Henry Martyn found it impossible to waste an hour in his translation work, through the vision of nations waiting for the truth which lay locked up in the book he was translating.

 

The need of a lost world proved to be an impelling motive to redeem the hours. The driving force in the life of our Lord was revealed in one of His incidental sayings, "I do always those things that please Him ". And for Him there were always twelve hours in the day.

There might not always be time to eat, but always He made time to pray.

 

There will always be time for everything that is within the will of God.