We can win the battle for our minds by praying on all occasions. As we go through our daily lives prayer is not always uppermost in our minds. In fact, prayer for many of us is an afterthought. We face some challenge and muddle through the best we can only to turn to prayer as a last resort. It is not that we don’t believe in prayer, we just aren’t dialing into it all of the time.
Part of the struggle we face is the overwhelming pressure we face to be self-sufficient. We are being told all of the time that we need to set our own course, steer our own ship, make our own decisions. Asking for help, even from God, is seen as a sign of weakness. So we see prayer as our last resort not our first step to facing the challenges of life.
There is another thing that gets in our way. We tend to compartmentalize our lives. We have a work compartment, a family compartment, a fun compartment and a spiritual compartment. Prayer belongs in the spiritual compartment, so we use it only on spiritual occasions. It doesn’t seem to apply when we are deciding how to spend our money or where we should live or how we should address issues at work. Of course I am making a rash generalization but you get the point. In practice we relegate prayer to specific times and places.
When we relegate prayer to the margins of our lives we open our minds to all kinds of attacks from Satan. He is the master of playing mind games. We face some difficulty at work and discouragement settles into our mind. We contemplate some financial opportunity and greed begins whispering in our ear. We feel hurt by another person and bitterness and revenge take center stage. When we leave our minds unguarded all manner of unwelcome guests find their way in.
Paul tells us the safeguard against this invasion is to face every situation with prayer. Pray on all occasions. There is never a circumstance or situation where prayer is not appropriate. Pray with all kinds of prayers and requests. There is not just one way to pray. If we understand that prayer is a two-way conversation with God then we are not limited in how we express our prayers. There are no special words we need to use. There is not special posture we must assume. There is just the honest expression of our thoughts and concerns to God. Our prayers can be long, short, silent, shouted, sung and even written. However we are best at expressing ourselves that is how we should approach our Heavenly Father.
Writing to the believers in Thessalonica Paul told them the following. “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NIV) I have often read these short verses with both a sense of confusion and amusement. Paul seems to be telling us to do the impossible. I cannot do anything always or continually, unless it is breathing. Paul’s statement is not as unattainable as it may seem at first glance.
Paul is really talking about the attitude of our hearts. He instructs us to train our minds to be in constant communion with God. Don’t let discouragement or bitterness reign in your heart. Instead embrace the joy of the Lord, which goes beyond the circumstances of life. Don’t leave your mind vulnerable to the negative messages of the world but constantly let Christ help you make sense of every situation. Don’t focus on what you don’t have but develop an attitude of gratitude.
Our minds are never truly at rest, even when we are sleeping. Our minds are constantly taking in data, sifting through it and making choices based the information we have. Over the years we unconsciously develop filters that help us with this process. Some of these filters are positive and some are negative. By consciously centering our minds on Christ these filters can be transformed to allow us to see the world from His perspective. With practice it becomes natural for us to include Christ in out thought processes. So instead of seeing prayer as our last resort it becomes our first response to the multitude of challenges we face every day.
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