Pondering Point

Today’s prayer teaching is a call to be both watchful and thankful. But it is not to merely a call to make sure that prayer happens, but to devote oneself to it. What have you been devoted to lately? Or maybe it can be better asked: To what are you devoting yourself?

As you take in this teaching and process it with your spiritual walk, ask yourself what being devoted to prayer would look like for you. Does it mean continuing in your situation or making changes? Would changes be minor tweaks or major overhauls? Do you need to make drastic moves or minor adjustments? Who is being helpful? Who is being harmful? To move on without asking such questions could be seen as failure to be watchful. If you don’t have time to ponder these questions now, devote a later time to address them with the Lord in prayer. Set an alarm on your phone.

Prayer Thoughts
Chapter 21
How am I Devoted to God in Prayer?

During the years in Seoul, my prayer life leaped forward to a new level. It was primarily due to a number of experiences... I learned to spend time in prayer like never before. It was the Jesus Abbey Discovery Week trip that challenged me to get my prayer life in order. I was to lead a group of students each year on a five-day prayer retreat to Jesus Abbey, a prayer and meditation center in the Taebeak Mountains of Korea. Father Archer Torrey, an Anglican priest, started this retreat center in 1965. He became a good friend and mentor to me as we visited each year. I knew, if I would be teaching others about prayer, that I had better learn all I could about the topic. Also, “the best way to learn to pray was to pray.”

[Got His book? Read pages 105-108]
~ Keep Me and Keep All, Smith

Also check out Pastor Bob’s answer to Prayer Question #2 on page 240: “Why do we pray?”