40 days of Prayer

Over the past few weeks we have been talking about Lent in the Boso household. Carmen has been blogging recently about Philippians 2 and not complaining. Although that has been a challenge to me in my attitude about many things, I do not feel as if that is the area I need to focus on during the next 40 days known as Lent. I have contemplated giving up foods, things, thoughts, etc. and even looked at adding things to my life, but with 2 seminary classes and multiple youth activities and family obligations on my plate I really could not add anything else to my routine.

I have felt really bad leading up to today when I was asked, "what are you giving up for Lent?" I would answer "I don't have a clue." I even resigned myself to just going through the next 40 days as normal. This morning, however, in my time with God felt that the most transforming thing I could do for the next 40 days is pray. I am ashamed to say that prayer occupies a very small percentage of my time. This is no doubt very disappointing as a Christian, but even more so as a minister who tells people that prayer changes things and the first thing we should do is pray.

My lame excuse for not praying has been "I'm very busy, have lots to do." Then I stumbled on this quote by Martin Luther about prayer:"If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer."

I am no where close to spending 3 hours a day in prayer, and the thought that I have so much to do that I cannot afford not to pray is very much true. I am so busy and have so much on my plate that if I am going to be effective at anything I must rely on God to work in my life and through the situations of every day.

So I am making this commitment for Lent, to spend an hour each day in prayer. My plan is to give up my lunch hour every day to get away and alone with God. Jesus spent 40 days alone in the wilderness and so through this season I will spend 40 hours alone with God being transformed and shaped into the man he wants me to be. My hope is that prayer becomes a necessity in my life that grows to even more time each day so that I can say like Luther "I have so much to do, I cannot get it done without spending my time daily in prayer."