The One Day Shelf-Life of Prayer

I’m using an app on my iPhone to track my activity level. I aim to “close my ring” daily by logging 700 calories of activity. And in true, ridiculous Apple form, if you close your ring, there’s this cool animation. It’s sparkly and, for some dumb reason, actually inspires me.

I was bemoaning the following reality to my wife. “Regardless of whether I double, meet, or fail to meet my goal, I must start over tomorrow. Maintaining daily motivation is tough.”

Welcome to everyone’s struggle, right?!

I was praying and working something similar out with the LORD. “I don’t understand why I have to pray every day. It seems that we have a deeply impacting conversation one day, and then its effect wears off. What is Your design for prayer?” (Our Father…give us today our daily…)

I began thinking of all the daily rhythms. Sleep. Eating. Activity. Scripture. Worship. Sunrise and sunset. Rest followed by work.

There’s a quote that I think of by Rory Vaden, “Success is never owned, it is rented, and the rent is due every day.”

Let’s sidestep the trap of striving for a “successful spiritual life,” checking off our disciplines to become pleasing to God. We ARE pleasing sons and daughters, and let that grace-filled identity empower us.

But there is a truth that we can extract from that quote that will help us in our daily rhythms. Our spiritual disciplines seem to have a shelf life. Since all our other rhythms cycle at least daily, wouldn’t it coincide that our times of focused prayer (as opposed to our “at all times” prayer) hold the same pattern?

You may be saying, “Duh!”

But there’s more. It’s the idea of compound interest. Of the cumulative effect.

Back to my goal of closing my activity rings; I have a goal of 700 calories. It’s a loosely quantitative goal, meaning it tracks how many calories I burn as accurately as a phone in my pocket can track them.

What it doesn’t tell me is how closing my ring each day affects me in other ways. Like walking up the mountain trail without gasping for breath. Or finding it increasingly easier to do things because I carry less “baggage.” (Imperially evidenced by numbers on the scale I haven’t seen since my early college days!)

The point isn’t to close my rings. It’s to live differently. The point isn’t to pray daily. It’s to grow my life with God and become spiritually stronger and deeper.

We’re leading up to Easter, where we celebrate Death being kicked in its own pants by itself. (Well, that’s my version of Christ using His own death to conquer death forever.)

Our churches will be full of folks, some dragged there by family, some fully engaged in the meaning of the season, some longing for a sentimental experience with their favorite songs, and some by sheer force of religious duty.

What if we shock them all by being “in the best spiritual shape of our lives?” What if we’d show up that day to lead worship genuinely empowered by the Spirit of the Living God? What if we’d agree to “close our rings” in prayer daily as we prepare, grow strong in spirit, and receive a thick anointing?

I believe setting aside this time to pray each day leading up to Easter would significantly impact the authority with which we lead on that day.

How long to pray each day? What “calories burned” would be a good number in minutes? Ask the LORD. If you don’t hear anything specific, you could use your age.

Who’s with me?

-Dave Helmuth
(purchase my book, "Worship Fertilizer: (the first hundred)" HERE)

The One Day Shelf-Life of Prayer (Nº 364)