DAY 5 | A culture of prayer

Isaiah 56:7

Do you know what your love language is?

There are allegedly five main love languages, although I think five is a bit limited because it doesn’t account for food, naps and other things. But as it is presented, the five love languages are physical touch, words of affirmation, acts of service, gifts and quality time. 

My wife is a quality time person. Actually, my wife is all five love languages, but primarily quality time. I thought I knew what quality time was - we sit in proximity to one another, we do different things and as long as we are near each other, that is quality time. That is not quality time (fellas, take notes). Quality time means that I am giving my full attention to my wife and talking or listening or both. Now, the way men and women are wired differently provides a huge hindrance to this because my answers are pretty simple: 

“How was your time with the guys?”

“Good.” 

But that does not work. There needs to be actual, thought out answers that provide details and context and information that I didn’t even know I needed to know. Considering I’m probably going to be in the doghouse now, why am I saying all this? Because to have emotional intimacy with my wife requires hard work. In order to connect with my wife in a meaningful way, it takes effort on my part. 

I think that a lot of time the expectation is that when it comes to prayer, which is our access point to intimacy with God, that it happens naturally. You say the prayer, you read the book and then you just always pray. But if you’ve been following Jesus for longer than 30 seconds, you know that this couldn’t be further from the truth. 

Even the most seasoned Christians I know still need to exercise discipline and intention in order to maintain a strong prayer life. 

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the Welsh preacher said “Everything we do in the Christian life is easier than prayer.” Maybe it’s just me, but I relate to this so much. It’s so easy to answer emails, read my Bible, do “Christian things” instead of being intentional in prayer to create intimacy with God. 

But today, my prayer is that God would help me desire Him. That He would, by His incredible grace and the power of His Spirit, He would captivate our hearts so that we would be a house of prayer. It’s going to take discipline. Maybe putting away your phone or scheduling a 15 minute break in your busy schedule today. But we must pray. Charles Spurgeon, the great preacher, once said “Prayer is the breath of faith. Prayer meetings are the lungs of the church.” Lord, let this be so in our jobs, our homes, our church and our lives. 

Ask God to form Legacy into a praying church, not just a growing one.