An Hour’s Prayer for Growth In God

“One of the best times I’ve ever had was spending an hour in prayer. And no, you don’t run out of things to say. Try it.”

— Ron Wilbur

In promising to be with the Lord for a full hour, staking our claim on 60 minutes of devotion to the One who have saved us, we enjoy both a divine privilege and a great investment toward spiritual growth.

We were saved for such things.

Much like the task of writing down 100 things we are grateful for, these types of exercises of devoting our time to God by way of intentional focus bring vast and unpredicted blessing into our lives.

These seem like extreme activities; to perhaps be saved up for times when we have nothing better to do. This is not the case. God richly desires that we be intentional about our faith; to sow into our discipleship with him.

Well, What Do We Pray About?

Anything and everything, could be the answer.

But such an answer is probably not helpful. It is better to focus—to just ‘be’, in the moment with God.

Much like it is when I write, we find that when we present ourselves to God, without anything to say, God gives us words. And we are always impressed with those words, because those words are from the Lord of Glory. Not that we are to be pridefully impressed with the words we pray, for they are not for our benefit; not in that way. Sure, God will bless us in the words he gives us, as we speak them in honour of him and to edify ourselves regarding what the Spirit is saying.

We are amazed when we do this. When we simply devote the time, by emptying the space between our ears, and, by focusing our hearts on God’s desires, we pray all the things that come to mind through the Spirit living within us.

So there can be no list of things to pray for, for the Spirit will give us the things to pray for; things for their allotted time.

An hour of devotion is simply our commitment to God to spend time with him, to grow in his presence, and to obey by abiding.

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When prayer becomes timeless, beyond the typical boundaries of our human priorities, we truly become more one with God.

When we enjoy God in prayer beyond time limit, we are shown and understand more fully the priorities of God.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.