ODB: Time to Pray?
May 5, 2011
There is no place or time we cannot pray.
READ: Psalm 70
Make haste to help me, O Lord! —Psalm 70:1
One morning, when I was a young child, I was sitting in the kitchen, watching my mother prepare breakfast. Unexpectedly, the grease in the skillet in which she was frying bacon caught fire. Flames shot into the air and my mother ran to the pantry for a bag of flour to throw on the blaze.
“Help!” I shouted. And then I added, “Oh, I wish it was time to pray!” “It’s time to pray” must have been a frequent household expression, and I took it quite literally to mean we could pray only at certain times.
The time to pray, of course, is any time—especially when we’re in crisis. Fear, worry, anxiety, and care are the most common occasions for prayer. It is when we are desolate, forsaken, and stripped of every human resource that we naturally resort to prayer. We cry out with the words of David, “Help me, O Lord!” (Ps. 70:1).
John Cassian, a 5th-century Christian, wrote of this verse: “This is the terrified cry of someone who sees the snares of the enemy, the cry of someone besieged day and night and exclaiming that he cannot escape unless his Protector comes to the rescue.”
May this be our simple prayer in every crisis and all day long: “Help, Lord!”
— David H. Roper
Source: Our Daily Bread
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As the Shepherd never for once forsake his fold but hasten to there need,so does God also. Time to pray is now! regardless of any present situation.
I believe one of the purposes of going through or having challenging times is for us to know that He is God. At least, it is very clear in the Old Testament. Not only for the neighoring countries but also the His people and kings. Even then, it is for our good that not only we need Him but can know Him in a personal way.
Amen