“Pray continually.” \u00a01 Thessalonians 5:17 NIV<\/i><\/b>
\nI listened to a great message this week on this verse. \u00a0The message was actually on spending time with God in prayer. When he started talking about this verse, he challenged his listeners, “How do you pray continually?”
\nIt turns out, for many of us, culture has identified prayer as something that is time consuming. \u00a0Something that needs to be set apart. \u00a0Something that has to be reverent, spiritual, intentional.
\nPrayer is reverent, it is spiritual and it is intententional. \u00a0It does not however have to be set apart from our daily lives. \u00a0It isn’t another thing that has to be added to our schedule. \u00a0It is something that is a lifestyle.
\nIt is something that can be done in 140 characters or less, all day long.
\nI do believe you should have time that is set aside for God. \u00a0For me, that is the start of my day. \u00a0I love to close myself in my prayer closet and begin my day with God. \u00a0I read His word, I journal, I listen. \u00a0It’s wonderful. \u00a0I love to get up at least an hour earlier than my actual day begins and give this time to him. \u00a0The earlier the better. \u00a0That’s just the start though. \u00a0It’s easy to walk away from these quiet times and put God back in His box, or leave Him in my closet and go about my day.
\nHow do we keep that communication with Him going? \u00a0How do we incorporate it into our day? \u00a0How does it become a lifestyle?
\nI realized as I listened to this message it’s a 140 character or less lifestyle for me. \u00a0It’s continuous and it’s all day.
\nWhy 140 characters? \u00a0In today’s world, in today’s technology, we have become conditioned to the 140 character limit. \u00a0We twitter in 140 characters. \u00a0We text in 140 characters. \u00a0We even Facebook in 140 characters. \u00a0We have learned we don’t have to say much to get our point across.
\nIt’s the same way with praying. \u00a0Praying continuously doesn’t mean long dialogues with eloquent words. \u00a0It’s keeping in touch with God throughout your day. \u00a0Letting Him be a part of every day. \u00a0Unlike your spouse or your best friend, He always answers. \u00a0He’s waiting on the text, He already has a reply before you even send it.
\nShort, heartfelt prayers are just as reverent, just as spiritual and just as intentional as long winded ones. \u00a0Maybe even more so.
\nHere are examples of a 140 character or less prayers:
\n“Lord help me.”
\n“Lord, give me words.”
\n“Lord, keep my mouth shut.”
\n“Lord, bless them.”
\n“Lord, correct them.”
\n“Lord, show them the way.”
\nAre you beginning to get the drift? \u00a0I’m praying in 140 characters or less you will.
\n“Lord, eyes to see and ears to hear.”
\nWhat are your short prayers that keep you in touch with God throughout your day? \u00a0I’d love to hear them.
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“Pray continually.” \u00a01 Thessalonians 5:17 NIV I listened to a great message this week on this verse. \u00a0The message was actually on spending time with God in prayer. When he started talking about this verse, he challenged his listeners, “How do you pray continually?” It turns out, for many of us, culture has identified prayer… Continue reading 140 Characters Or Less<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2627,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions\/2627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.honestreflections.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}