Praying Continually

Things in life are often much more closely linked than I take them to be. I tend to see my life as composed of different areas: family, writing, church, friends, work, school and so on. Each of those areas is, mentally, distinct. In reality, though, they're not. On a superficial level, I know many of my friends from church; my family are involved in my studying; something that I realise while tutoring might inspire a blog post. Those are all overlaps, but there is a much greater overlap between all these areas, which I often fail to realise: me. Beyond me, God is in all these areas too. Thinking of them as unrelated is silly if not downright impossible.

For that reason, it shouldn't surprise me that when I disrupt one part of my life, the rest of it is disrupted too. It does, though. Skipping my quiet time just once, because I left my Bible in the car outside shouldn't mean I'll be grumpy the next day and struggle to write a blog post. It's not like I have to post about my bible reading. I could post about anything. Somehow, though, it doesn't work out very well.

When I admit that I'm not writing in my own strength, the ideas come readily. I no longer have to wonder whether or not I'll write a post today: I only wonder which idea it would be best to write out. I don't think that one day without bible reading in itself stopped me from writing, but I think the attitude I took to it stopped me from living life in all its fullness.

I can centre my life around me, but really, I'm not that exciting. I can centre my life around other people, but if I'm honest, they're not that interesting either. They're not boring, but they don't fill me with an all-consuming passion to learn to know and serve them better either. I can focus my life on God, who, it turns out, is fairly fascinating. He also wants me to focus on Him and has the power to help me do just that. Making God the centre of my life fits; it makes everything work like it should, even when it takes more effort. God spills over into every aspect of my life; I am not only spiritually fulfilled by Him, but everything I do is enhanced and completed by His presence.

I think that's something of what Paul meant when he said 'pray continually'.