For you to truly grasp my coming thoughts you must first understand where I’m at while I write.  Currently I am caught somewhere between complete exhaustion and the desire to stay awake (at least a few more hours). Our local assembly has felt the need to host two all night prayer meetings a month. Each person in the church takes at least one hour and the entire church is in constant prayer for twenty four hours. As youth Pastor I drew the short straw and am currently serving 4- 5 in a maximum security sanctuary with dimmed lights and slow songs.  Whatever happened to the days where everyone stayed all night? (I’ll have to bring that up at the next planning meeting) But while serving my time, I have begun to realize that a church that will buckle down and look past all the petty insecurities and short comings of their neighbor, can, and will have the move of God that they have been desiring. Can I sit and say that in the past few meetings and hours of this particular event that I have felt like giving a hundred percent? Absolutely not, but something has occurred to me. God doesn’t always require 100% all the time, but rather a percent, 100% of the time. You’re not always going to want to give everything you have 100% of the time. God understands that life and problems will begin to weigh on the mind and heart of an individual. However, what he does require is in those moments where you don’t feel like giving him everything, give him something. Prayers, just like praise, are not predicated on feelings. They are not predicated on circumstances, but they are Predicated on who God is, not what God has done, and is doing, but simply because He is God, and because He is God, He is deserving of our attention, focus and prayers no matter life’s predicaments or personal feelings.

I’m reminded of the story in Matthew of the man that brings his lunatic son to Jesus.

vs. 16 “And I have brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him” The disciples were with Christ all day, they spent 100% of the day with Jesus. They had seen miracle after miracle, but yet with all the time they spent with him they still couldn’t do what he did.  I have always heard that the quantity of your prayer is important. (Please do not take this as if I’m against long prayer times. People need to seek the face of God as much as they can.) I agree to an extent. I agree that our prayers should not be hurried through and rushed so that we can get the feeling like we have actually spent time with God and can move on to our next chore for the day, but rather your prayers should be carefully, reverently, and with a God like fear delivered to God, thus making it possible for God to in turn speak to us. However, a two hour prayer, where we say the same ritual things over and over and there is no intensity and fire in our hearts, does no better than a rushed thirty second prayer. The length of our prayer is not near as important as the intensity to which we and God communicate. If I can do that effectively in ten minutes and then live a good clean separated life unto God, Good for me and God bless. But if you and I are similar then we will have life issues every day, jobs and crazy lunatic bosses. To us, our lives require us to search and dig and sacrifice a little more. People in this microwave society demand everything right now. We demand the same of God, we want to come in and spit out a rushed hurried prayer and want God to bless and show favor on us. I wish it worked like that. But the amount of time we spend in this sinful world should be balanced by the time we spend in the presence of the King. My deepest prayer for this blog and for you is that we will spend as much time with Him as he requires, and when we do, watch as God  blesses

I hope this blog has lifted and inspired you to pray more and with more intensity. I hope and sincerely pray that God blesses you, your families, finances, jobs, and churches. May his Glory and Favor shine upon you and your ministry. God Bless

Joshua Smith
Prayer Coordinator, The Rock Ministry