Devote Yourself to Prayer
As a pastor, I receive emails from time to time asking me to complete a survey in exchange for a copy of an ebook. I completed one of those surveys this morning. To be honest, I really didn’t like my answers!
Today’s survey questions asked about my prayer life:
- How much time do you spend praying?
- What do you spend the most time praying for?
- How often do you pray with other people?
- When was the last time you spent more than ten minutes in prayer?
- When was the last time you spent more than thirty minutes praying?
- When was the last time you spent more than an hour praying?
- How satisfied are you with your prayer life?
- etc.
Like I said, I didn’t like my answers. But they were great questions; questions that believers need to be asked from time to time.
In today’s Bible reading from Colossians 4, Paul tells the Colossians to devote themselves to prayer. In light of today’s survey questions, I thought I’d dig a little into what Paul actually wanted his readers to do.
The English word devote is translated from a couple of different Greek words. But the words Paul uses in Colossians 4:2 are used elsewhere in a similar way. Here are a few examples.
- They all were continually united in prayer, along with the women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. Acts 1:14 (CSB)
- They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Acts 2:42 (CSB)
- Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, Acts 2:46 (CSB)
- But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. Acts 6:4 (CSB)
One of my Greek lexicons (a fancy word for a dictionary) says that this Greek word means,
1. to adhere to one, be his adherent, to be devoted or constant to one.
2. to be steadfastly attentive unto, to give unremitting care to a thing.
3. to continue all the time in a place.
4. to persevere and not to faint.
5. to show one’s self courageous for.
6. to be in constant readiness for one, wait on constantly.[1]
Another lexicon says this Greek word means, “to continue to do something with intense effort, with the possible implication of despite difficulty—‘to devote oneself to, to keep on, to persist in.’”[2]
Let me merge a couple of those definitions: To give unremitting care to something with intense effort, despite difficulty.
In other words, “devoting oneself to prayer” is much more than “saying your prayers”. It’s much more than going through a list of prayer requests. In the context of praying with other people, it’s much more than merely updating the names of people and their needs on our corporate prayer list.
My answers didn’t fit very well with what Paul was telling the Colossians to do!
Ouch!
Application
How would you answer those questions? Would you be satisfied with your answers?
So what are some practical things you can do today to change your answers to fit more with the actual instructions Paul was giving the Colossian church?
Write your answers in a journal. Then devote yourself to prayer.
Periodically go back and review your answers and see how God has grown you in the spiritual discipline of prayer.
[1] Strong, James. Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon 1995 : n. pag. Print.
[2] Louw, Johannes P., and Eugene Albert Nida. Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains 1996 : 662. Print.