As If It Mattered

Luke describes the life of the followers of Jesus in the city of Jerusalem this way:

They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. (Acts 2:42)

“Continually devoting themselves to”–that expression speaks of perseverance, persistence, being always “at hand.” Four things are listed, the focal points of their persistent living. We’ll start with the last one, prayer, and work our way back to the first.

They were continually devoting themselves to prayer. What would that look like? Did they have one, day-long, never-ending prayer meeting? Hardly. At least reading the rest of the book of Acts suggests that they still went about their lives, not having jettisoned everything in exchange for one protracted worship service.

The same language is used by Paul in some of his letters. In Romans 12:12 he describes the life of those who belong to the merciful God as “devoted to prayer” and in writing to the Colossians he calls them to “devote yourselves to prayer” (Colossians 4:2).

So what does this look like? The word translated “devoted” can convey the sense of “immediately at hand.” The idea is always ready, stepping into at a moments notice. So to be devoted to prayer might mean not that they were mumbling prayers under their breath every waking moment, but that at any moment, in that moment, they might pray. Prayer was woven into the fabric of their lives in such a way that wherever you touched the fabric, prayer was not far away.

I pray. In the morning when I wake. At meals. At “special times.” I pray when someone asks me to prayer (usually . . . well, maybe, more honestly, sometimes). But I don’t know that prayer has become woven into the fabric of my days, my life. Not in such a way that you might say I am “devoted to prayer.” And I wonder, “Why not?”

It dawns on me that what differs in my life of prayer from that pictured in Acts and elsewhere in the New Testament is that they prayed as if prayer really mattered. I pray as if prayer is a good thing. I pray as if prayer sometimes brings me peace. I pray out of habit. They prayed as if it were life.

I eat regularly. I wake in the morning thinking about breakfast appointments and where I will go to eat. I plan my snacking. Reflect on what would taste good mid-morning, where I will be and what I can get my hands on. When I have lunch-time appointments, I am planning what to order even before I arrive at the restaurant. If I don’t have a lunch commitment, I content myself with strategically planning the route home around where I could grab a quick bite to eat. You get the picture. I “food” as if food really mattered to me. I am, in a real sense, devoted to food, to eating. I do this because I am convinced (whether rightly or not!) that food matters, it is necessary for life.

I’d like to grow to a place that prayer began to take on the prominence of food in my life. I’m going to ask the Lord to bring about changes in my soul, in my appetites, so that prayer becomes more woven in. That when I am not actively praying, I am thinking about praying, or planning on praying, or getting little “prayer snacks” to tide me over until the next prayer feast. That talking with the God who brought us into fellowship with himself becomes my very way of life, because it matters. And I hope to start . . . right after breakfast.