Carrying His Heart

In my last post I wrote about the relationship and importance of prayer regarding an eternal perspective. Here I am continuing to expand on prayer, beginning with a little bit of context. I have read many accounts of people having amazing spiritual encounters with the Lord and that leading to prayer and travail. I have heard testimonies and read accounts of people praying for hours and it seemed like minutes. Wonderful – not me. I find that I need to be disciplined and diligent in prayer. I have never prayed in the morning, or any other time, and had an experience where even half an hour seemed like it was mere minutes. I have however had greater and lesser experiences of His presence and leading in prayer.

At the same time, I choose to simply follow His command to pray whether or not I have a sense of His presence and leading in the morning. This is simply honouring His requirement to be found faithful (1 Corinthians 4:2). This is one aspect of carrying His heart and I think it is encapsulated in this verse, which I will illustrate.

¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray without ceasing, ¹⁸ in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 (NKJV)

The idea of praying without ceasing does not mean praying 24 hours a day, a logical impossibility. It does mean holding our heart in an attitude of prayer and responding to His leading in prayer whenever the opportunity arises.

Here we will focus in on carrying His heart outside of a set prayer time (hopefully you have one). In my life I regularly have experiences of thinking of someone and sensing a call to pray for them. This can happen at any time during the day or when I am walking, hiking or biking. At times I wake up during the night and He brings someone to mind and I sense a call to pray for them. I often wake up during the night, I don’t always pray!

To be clear, there are no flashes of lightening, no deep travail, just the sense of a calling and opportunity to pray. I think this is something available to all of us if we cultivate an awareness of His presence and ask Him to develop and deepen our awareness of Him throughout our days.

I believe this sensitivity to His presence requires a gentleness on our part, which I will illustrate with something that happened a few days ago when I was walking my son’s dog. I came across a large and beautiful butterfly on the sidewalk that was struggling to get airborne. I put my finger under the many legs and it climbed on and I gently lifted it up. It was amazing to study close up, face to face as it were. On my finger it began to move its wings then slowly flew off gaining altitude. I continued my walk.

Think of this as Him calling us to prayer at various times throughout the day. He brings our awareness to something; I saw the butterfly struggling. We then engage with what He brings to our attention, usually a person. We follow up by lifting this object of prayer up to Him and release it (unless He keeps bringing it back) then continue on with our day. This is carrying His heart.