“Rain, rain, go away, come again some other day…” Does that rhyme bring back any memories? Or, maybe, that’s what you have been thinking this past week. I know one person was hoping along those lines because of the scheduled garage sales in Vassar. Some of us have been thinking along those lines because of water in the church basement, or in our own basements. Any way you look at it, it has been wet, wet, wet. As Eleanor put in on Thursday morning, the ground is saturated.
That thought got me thinking. What are our lives saturated with? They should be saturated with prayer! Paul talked about that in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” [Emphasis mine] Our lives should be characterized by prayer, so that whatever we may be doing, we are quick to come before the Father, whether with praises or pleas for help.
However, like the rain saturates the ground, other things can saturate our lives and crowd out our prayer time. Brothers and sisters, this is dangerous ground. Why is it so dangerous? The answer is simple: because Satan can use just about anything to distract us from worship of God and prayer. When we get distracted from worship and prayer, we tend to become self-reliant. When we become self-reliant, we get too concerned about ourselves, and forget to turn to God.
I think Martin Luther understood this problem. He is quoted as saying, “Tomorrow I plan to work, work, from early until late. In fact I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” Instead of neglecting prayer, having “too much to do” drove Luther to spend more time in prayer. He knew where to find strength, and we would do well to follow that example.
So, I ask you, “How’s your prayer life?”
Are you prayer saturated?
In His grip,
Pastor Decker
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