Do I Have To Pray Every Day? Series

Pray every day.

Do you have a list of things you would like to

achieve?

We all have lists of things we would like to do this

year, this month, this week, maybe you even have

something you would like to do today.

I have a list of things I would like to achieve - it’s

not written down anywhere I keep it all in my head:

The 1st is to write the last essays that I need to do

as part of my ministerial training.

The 2nd is to develop a deeper relationship with

God and spend more time in prayer.

The 3rd is to find the time to carry on learning to

play the Saxophone.

There are many other things on my list,

some are more important than others.

There are some things that I would like to do,

some things I have to do,

some things that I will struggle to find the time to

do,

and others I may never manage to find the time for.

If we are honest there are lots of things that we

have to do each day.

Sometimes the things we choose to do can get in

the way of the things we should be doing.

My life is pretty busy most days, and I need to

choose how I use my time.

Can you tell me something you want to,

or need to do every day?

Read the paper/Brush Teeth / Eat / Drink / Breathe

There are some things that are essential to

everyday living.

And there are some things that are not.

If I don't read a newspaper everyday it will not

effect my life that much.

If someone does not clean their teeth - others may

be more effected than they are!

Our bodies can go without food for far longer than

they can operate without breath!

But there are four things that the Bible suggests

are important for us to do every day:

we need to pray

we need to praise and worship God

we need to love and serve God and

we need to love and serve each other.

How often you pray and how often you praise

may vary from day to day - but they should still

happen every day.

How often you serve may also vary and that often

depends more on how we feel than on what we

know God expects us to do.

Often we can start a day with the best intentions.

We decide, today is the day I will pray more,

or, today is the day I will read my Bible more.

or, today is the day I will praise God more.

or, today is the day I will show my love for God by

serving others in some way....

We start the day with the best intentions,

and then we find it's time for bed

and we did'nt actually spend any time doing what

we could have done.

We can allow life to crowd out time with God, or we

can choose to spend some quality time with Him

each and every day.

We all need to take an opportunity to step aside

from the busyness of life and just be still in the

presence of God.

In the fast, busy, do it now, instant world that we

live in, we need to press pause, be still and pray.

Psalm 46:10 simply says: “Be still, and know that I

am God!”

It's good advice isn't it.

Pause, spend time with God.

Take the time to pray.

Take the time to read your Bible.

Take the time to praise God.

Take the time to express your love for God by

serving others.

I’m sure we all put aside some time each day to

spend with God, we pray, read our bibles, maybe a

daily devotional, maybe you even sing as you walk

around your house.

But taking time to serve others...

Well often life gets in the way,

often we let life get in the way,

in fact sometime we make sure that life gets in the

way,

then we have an excuse for not doing what we

know God wanted us to do.

We can try and do stuff in our own strength,

or we can allow the Holy Spirit to empower us to

do stuff in the strength of the Lord.

We can choose to do things our way or we can

pray and ask God to lead us to do things God's

way.

We know God's way is the right way, we know that

God's way is the best way.

But...

But, sometimes, no, often, often we would rather

do it our way.

Friends the truth is we should desire to follow

God's way everyday.

To seek His will, to seek His glory.

To serve Him in faith and love.