"Christians Don't Pray"

Our friend Elaine, called this morning to tell us to check out an interview on Good Morning America, with Diane Sawyer speaking with muslim children in Saudi Arabia. This group of third graders were very similar to American children. They spoke of Wal-Mart, Target and even Dr. Phil. They had typical future dreams, wanting to be architects and doctors. Ms. Sawyer continued the interview asking them about religion. The Saudi third graders had this to say, "Christians are bad, Muslims are good----Christians don't pray."
Wow!!! What an indictment! I mean, we pray!!! We do!!! Every Sunday morning, we open our bible class with a prayer, we start worship service with an "opening prayer". We pray before we take the bread and before we take the wine and even before we give our offering, right? And most of the time, we even close the service with a prayer---sometimes we incorporate the prayer for the fellowship meal afterward into that one prayer, don't we? Sometimes, we even pray during the week other than at church on Wednesday evening. How dare they say we don't pray?
I did an internet search on Muslim prayer--this is what I found out: According to my understanding, "devout" Muslims pray a minimum five times a day facing Mecca. There are many rules or aspects to their prayers. They must make sure they themselves, are clean and the area where they will be praying is clean. In preparation for their prayer, the recite the entire first book of the Kuran and then any pertinent verses. They stand and raise hands, praising allah and then inviting him to hear their prayers. They recite a series of statements usually three times all as a part of their prayer. The usual prayer, according to my research, lasts over ten minutes. The crier who calls them to prayer at dawn starts by saying, "Prayer is better than sleep". Their practices suggest they place prayer above most other activities in their lives.

While I am not promoting praying to allah, I believe we can learn from their devotion to prayer. Prayer is our communication with God---the One and Only God. It is commanded, it is exampled, its success is promised. I could cite so many scripture references here, but you know them, we all do. And yet, prayer seems to be one of the most malnourished areas of our lives. Prayer should not be optional for Christians, nor should it be an afterthought. The God of the universe wants us to talk to Him. We should want to do that. We don't really take prayer seriously. We don't make preparations to speak to God. We don't make time to speak to God. We don't. I don't believe that we, (me, included) spend enough time in prayer. I don't believe that we make prayer a priority over sleep, over food, over entertainment, over leisure, over ________. (You fill in the blank). And, brothers and sisters, we should!!! Perhaps our endeavors are not as succesful because we have not asked God's blessings on them. Perhaps the heart of that soul is not softening, their eyes not opening to God's message because we have not asked for God's intervention. Perhaps our finances, our relationships, our ministries, our own spiritual health, are not flourishing because we haven't asked God to make it happen. Perhaps our church is not growing and our leaders aren't leading and our members aren't active because we haven't asks God's help in making it so. We (again me included) should repent, change, become a prayerful people or -----perhaps, all those little third graders will be proven right---Christians don't pray!!!

Neva
"Just as it is written in the law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God . . . " Daniel 9:13