Val's Last Lecture

What I hope you know about prayer

What I hope you know about prayer

As I edge closer to passing the baton to our next VMP prayer girl, I am reminded of the book The Last Lecture. I never read it, but it made quite a buzz. A dying professor shares his final lesson for his students. What would you share if you knew this was your last time to encourage those that you hoped to impact?

I’m in those feels today. I’ve shared for over 11 years in Instagram posts, blog posts, a course, and book about what I hope you know about prayer, but when I thought about the last piece of encouragement that I could leave with you, this is what the Lord provided:

If you’re not praying, you're underestimating how good prayer is.

If we knew how amazing prayer truly was, we’d never choose our phones over it.

If I ask you to keep your hand on a car for as long as you can for either an actual car or $5, my guess is you would last much longer for the car. Why? Because you know and agree upon the value.

You push yourself beyond what’s easy.

You’d be ok getting uncomfortable.

You wouldn’t care if you looked silly.

You’d get focused on the ultimate prize.

You would know that this present sacrifice would be worth it.

But for $5? You’d probably give up pretty fast. A mere hunger pain would loosen your grip off the metal handle as you found the nearest Mexican restaurant (free chips and salsa ASAP, please!)

The reason we make flimsy excuses not to pray, swap quiet times for a workout or sleep, or ignore addressing doubts and roadblocks is because we think the value of the alternative has a higher value.

So, if there’s one last thing I share with you, it’s this:

Our first order of business to a vibrant prayer life is placing the proper value (as best our human brains can) on prayer. Without that, we simply won’t be able to sustain a prayer life in our noisy world. Quiet, unrushed, non-urgent moments with our Creator run counter to the pace of today. So, it will require our utmost understanding of just how amazing prayer is if we’re going to keep pursuing it.

Otherwise, every subtle hindrance will toss us off track. So before you figure out the prompts that work best for you (ahem, you should try our format if you haven’t already) or before you schedule a daily time to pray or join a prayer group, assess the value of prayer.

Is it really all that special? What power does it hold? Do you believe God speaks to us through it? Or is it just busy work filling up our days until heaven? Does knowing God intimately make any difference to our daily life?

How big do you let prayer get when you think about it? If ever there was a time to dream big or go all out, it’s prayer.

I struggle to quantify the difference between my days filled with time in God’s presence and days where I let sin and laziness push Him to the side. Sure, I can try to describe it—there’s obviously more joy, peace, guidance, faith—but really? You won’t truly know until you experience it.

There’s the rub. We must value prayer to pursue it, but we can’t truly see the value for ourselves until we experience it.

If you feel overwhelmed just thinking about this, here’s the miracle of it all. God, in all His power and grace, does the heavy lifting. We bring our willing hearts and faith the size of a mustard seed and He changes us.

So today, I’m doing the only thing I know to do. Pray for the Lord to press deeply on your heart the immense power that time in His presence has. Pray that what threatens to steal your time and attention in place of it will be like lukewarm water spewed from your mouth. Pray that the God who calls us to Himself will take our hand and lead us there.

I hope you have been encouraged here. You’ll get one more VMP farewell email from me, but before I do that, I hope to encourage you one last time that your prayer life is always worth sacrificing for.

WHAT NEXT?

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