Prayer, Devotions, and Perseverance

I recently heard a talk from a lady who is 79 years old. She may be 79, but she seems so much younger because of her attitude, her spunk, her humor, and just how spry she still is. She has worked in Japan as a missionary for 45 years or so and she was asked to talk about perseverance in a recent church event. She described perseverance as something that is enabled by our time with the Lord each day, our devotion to him, our prayer life, and a habit of Scripture reading.

Recently I have found it is difficult to incorporate my regular devotions into my routine. I used to read and pray almost every morning without fail and again at night before bed as well. But with the life transitions of getting to know Rex and then marrying him, my normal routines have shifted. Let's just say it's requiring some work to incorporate a regular routine the way I once had. On the other hand, I have experienced times where my devotional routine was just that - a routine. The joy had gone out of it; I was treating it as a chore. No longer was it a joyful, peaceful time to learn and hear from my Creator.

So I have been thinking about this topic a bit.

When to read and pray?
How long to read and pray?
What is the purpose of reading and praying?
Are there other ways to enhance my devotional life like devotionals, music, or prayer walks?
What about calling a friend to compare notes on what God has been teaching us lately?

I have heard a few things on prayer lately, including the recommendation to journal in two places - one place where you write your actual prayers, another place where you write down what is distracting you from prayer in the moment. I also heard from the afore-mentioned lady about her own habit for a devotional time. She prioritizes her devotions above breakfast, so she doesn't eat until she has had time with God. She reads a chapter, and then thinks about it, re-reads it, and she writes down what she thinks God has for her for that very day - something to apply to her life. The book mentioned in my previous blog, Rare Leadership, recommends having conversational prayer time with the Lord and writing what he has to say to you. But in order to make sure you're not just making up random stuff or to help ensure that this is really what the Lord has to say to you, the authors of the book recommend sharing your prayer journal with brothers or sisters in the Lord for confirmation and for wisdom. This way you're not relying only on your own wit to make sure that what you think you're hearing from the Lord aligns with Scripture and the Spirit of God.

Finally, in my classes at Moody I was reminded about the commands in Deuteronomy for people to write the words of the covenant and bind them to their door posts, to their arms, to their foreheads, to speak about God's words when they sleep and when they rise, to speak of them to their children, to remind each other what God has done for the Israelites as a people so they do not forget and so they remain close to the Lord all the days of their life.

Visiting Uncle Oliver and Aunt Gene about a month ago was a reminder of what that looks like. We sat down to a meal on Sunday singing a prayer. After the meal Uncle Oliver read some parts of a devotional to us all. He told of the Lord's work, he recited the Lord's Prayer for us in Malagasy, and sang several hymns and songs in Malagasy and then in English.

This really was a true life example of what perseverance looks like: 90+ years of perseverance and dedication.