A popular saying goes thus: “A prayer-less Christian is a powerless christian”. This saying has been professed by thousands of Christians particularly in Africa. One would usually hear it from the pastor at a church service or from the prayer leader charging up the team to stay prayed up. In other cases it may be uttered by a zealous teacher at the daily school assembly to instill fear into the hearts of students so that they can sit up because really, no one wants to be powerless.
Sadly, this popular saying has remained nothing but a saying that is forgotten as soon as the church members or students step out of the auditorium. Returning back to their homes and hostels the same way they came; prayer-less. Many Christians have given up along the line, totally frustrated at the different rules given by different spiritual heads as to how to pray and how long one has to pray for to be tagged as a fire brand Christian.
Having to wake up in the early hours of the morning to spend some time talking to God has become the hardest task for many Christians. Strangely, it always seems a lot easier to do a chore of sweeping and mopping the floors than it is to sit still and focus on communicating with God. Having to sing a few songs worshiping and praising God, opening our bibles to study and talking to God seems a lot more hectic than spending thirty minutes trying to create an arc on the brow.
Cindy says, “I really want to pray each time I wake up in the morning but most of the time something more important always comes up”. The sad part is that we fail to realize that those distractions are ways the devil uses to pull us away from entering into God’s presence where there is love, peace and joy. So he tries to direct our attention towards “enticing” and “sensible” things to distract us from spending that 30 minutes in communion with God. It has always been said that it is much more easy to watch a one hour thirty minutes movie than it is to pray for the exact same time.
It is a daily struggle in the life of a christian. We wake up in the morning and the first activity we want to partake in is picking up our phones to check emails, whats app messages, pings and feeds. And before we realize, its time to go to work so we rush into the bathroom, get dressed quickly and the thought of praying is far long gone only to remember while on the bus or in your car so you end up uttering two to three words of prayers only to be distracted by the bus driver pointing five fingers at you just because you’re driving too slow or by the conductor who is reigning curses on a particular passenger because he doesn’t have change and once again the thought of praying is far long gone.
There is an ongoing war between our bodies and our spirits. Never should there be a time where our bodies(the flesh) win that battle. According to Kennett Hagan “You are a spirit being, You have a soul and you live in a body”. This basically means that the real me, the real you is actually a spirit and your body is just a house that the real you(your spirit) lives in.
Therefore we(our spirits) are supposed to have total control, dominate and rule over our bodies. Most times our bodies will try to fight, but we have to exert that we(our spirits) are the CEOs, the bosses. We are the decision makers as to when and how long we would pray. According to 1 Corinthians 9:27, you are to discipline your body and put it under control. God will not do it for you, You have to do it by yourself. In Romans 7:15, Paul confessed that just like Cindy, the things he wanted to do, he found himself not doing them and the things he didn’t want to do, he found himself doing them.
I also have to admit that most times I wake up not feeling like praying, books I am yet to read and stories I am yet to finish are staring at me, but I know I have to make effort to begin to speak. Sometimes I literally have to get up from bed to avoid dozing off and along the line as I persevere in talking to God, slowly something begins to give way inside of me and I realize I am getting into the prayer. Suddenly I become so energized to the point where I begin to pace to and fro in my room and before I know it I am praying in the Holy ghost and my spirit becomes so alive I feel it all over my body.
Prayer points that I’m not even thinking about pops up and I could be that way for an hour on my feet worshiping and talking to God. What happened? How did I get there? I persevered, I didn’t allow my body to control me. My body wants to arrange the room, pick up my phone or sleep some more but I have to purposefully put those “sensible and reasonable” thoughts aside for the mean time and FOCUS. And you know what? At the end of the session, I feel amazing, I feel light on my toes and I feel like I can conquer the world.
