Pray Anywhere and Anytime

One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer– at three in the afternoon. (Acts 3:1)

Most people don’t think of 3:00 in the afternoon as the time of prayer. But it was one of three times of prayer common to observant Jews (the other two being 9 am and noon). Do we often set aside specific times of day to pray?

For some of us, we pray before getting out of bed in the morning. Others of us pray before going to sleep at night.

But, prayer can be enough of a challenge that many people turn the dinner time into the hour of prayer while the food gets cold. Or maybe they fall into the Cut-to-the-Chase-Crowd and simply say “Thank you, God, for this food. Amen.” And then that’s the extent of prayer and worship for the day.

It’s hard to imagine going to church 3 times a day for prayer. In fact, the mere idea of going to church 3 times a day all by itself is a bit much for too many people. But the truth is that worship is something that we don’t have to go to a place to do anymore (beyond a corporate time on the Lord’s Day however you celebrate it). Prayer, because of the Holy Spirit, is something we can do in the shower, in the car, in the grocery store parking lot, on our walks, or while exercising. It doesn’t diminish God by our inviting Him into our everyday tasks. He likes being included. Prayer can be a 24/7 thing. That’s what it means when we talk about praying without ceasing.

Questions for thought: