I met with a good buddy of mine every Wednesday morning at the same coffee shop at 6:30 a.m. It sits about 4 blocks from both of our houses, so it's a great location, and it has just about the best dirty Chai latte either of us have ever had (shoutout to you, Shades of Brown). We meet up to read, exchange successes/struggles and discuss random facts of life. It's a great time.
Anyway, today we were talking, and the topic of prayer came up. I asked him a question about whether or not he thought that prayer seemed overwhelming at times, and just as I feel, he too said it felt overwhelming at times. It was a great piece of honesty that I've never gotten off my chest before, and I'm glad I wasn't alone in feeling that way.
I mean, think about it. The Bible tells us to 'pray without ceasing,' there's always prayer requests coming in from friends and family and then to wrap it all up, there's always local, national and global issues and leaders to pray for. It's A LOT, and frankly, much of the time, I'm not sure what to do with it all and how to feel about it.
Usually, I spend my 'high points' of prayer in the morning and at night each day. Those are the times when I shut my door, turn everything off and am able to sit in the presence of my Maker to pray. These are also the times when I find myself most overwhelmed by prayer. As I'm praying, the task of trying to remember all the request I've been asked to pray for over the last few days, the needs of my country and the praises of answered prayers past seems daunting, and I often find myself trying to remember things rather than praying for them. After all, I don't want to be the guy that says, "Yes, I'll be praying for you," and then never actually do it.
So, the more my friend and I talked about this situation and this feeling, the more we realized that praying doesn't have to be a set schedule, and it doesn't always have to be everything all at once. Prayer can be whenever, wherever, and the last thing it should be is 'overwhelming.' It should be the opposite of that, really. Don't worry about piecing all the prayer requests you have stored up in a two minute prayer before you walk out the door. We have 24-hours in a day for a reason, and we're to pray without ceasing for a reason. It's inevitable that the Holy Spirit is acting in the hearts of believers, and He will guide your mind and your heart to prayer. If you randomly think of someone/someone's request in the middle of the day, take a moment to say that prayer for them you said you would say. Odds are, you didn't just think of them randomly for no reason.
God knows our hearts, our minds and our souls, and He hears all of our prayers- the out-loud ones, the silent ones and the ones we stop and say during the middle of the day when it might seem most inconvenient; it's just up to us to acknowledge that wonderful promise and act on it.
-Cliff
Cliff's Note: Prayer shouldn't be overwhelming; it should be encouraging.