Do Discipline and Prayer Go Together?
Being disciplined in prayer is incredibly important to our Christian lives. Reading that opening sentence may cause you to bristle inside a little bit. Isn’t being disciplined forcing yourself to do something that you don’t want to do?
There are a lot of things that we feel like we should be disciplined about that we don’t necessarily want to do: working out at the gym instead of watching tv, eating a salad instead of scarfing down pizza, or putting money in your 401K for retirement instead of spending it on something today. Is it wrong to say we should be disciplined in prayer? To answer that question, we need to define what we’re talking about.
What is prayer? That answer should be obvious to most Christians. Prayer is talking to God. It can take many forms: adoration, praise, confession, lament, thanksgiving, supplication, and making our requests known to God.
What do we mean by being disciplined? In the context of our prayer lives, I would say being disciplined means having self-control to faithfully and regularly do what we know we should do. When we’re talking about being disciplined in prayer, we’re talking about having self-control to faithfully and regularly pray. Wait – isn’t that legalism? If we’re praying just to check the box because we feel like we’re supposed to, then, yes.
The Pharisees were torn to shreds by Jesus for just going through the motions of religious activities because they thought they could earn their salvation through their works (see Luke 11:37-54). They were drawing near to God with their lips, but their hearts were a million miles away from him. Praying to just follow the rules is a form of legalism.
When we’re talking about being disciplined in prayer are we talking about mandated prayer? No—definitely not. Mandated prayer is part of many false religions. If prayer is done out of pure duty without a heart to honor God, it’s not pleasing to God and it doesn’t benefit us.
However, if our heart’s desire is to honor God, it is a good thing to be disciplined to prioritize prayer and make time for it. By keeping watch on our hearts, we can ensure our motives for prayer are right and we will remain faithful in prayer even when we’re feeling spiritually weak.
Think of being disciplined with a right heart before God as making time for what you know is important and fighting fleshly weaknesses that would keep us from talking to God.
Why Should We Pray?
There are many reasons why we should pray, which we’ll cover more extensively in future articles. However, two foundational reasons that we should pray are that prayer is commanded and prayer is effective.
First of all, prayer is commanded in scripture.
Pray without ceasing
1 Thess 5:17
If God tells us in his Word to do something, that should be reason enough for us to do it. Here we’re told that we need to pray without ceasing or stopping. To be clear, praying without ceasing doesn’t mean locking yourself in a closet to pray alone with your eyes closed 24 hours a day. It means being in constant communion with God all throughout the day. Again, God isn’t mandating the exact timing and content of what we should pray, but he is mandating that we should be praying consistently.
Additionally, we see that the prayers of believers are effective:
The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
James 5:16b
Prayer is a means by which God accomplishes his will. He loves answering the prayers of the saints that are in line with his will. When a righteous person (a believer in Christ) petitions God in accordance with his character and his will, he loves to answer that prayer. We should pray because it is effective in working to God’s glory and our benefit.
Why Don’t We Pray?
Even though we know it is good for us to pray, we are often distracted by other things that keep us from prayer.
Busyness
The day-to-day craziness of life can keep us preoccupied and distracted. There are many necessary and good things we have to do every day to get through life: going to work, taking care of our children, cleaning the house, exercising, helping kids with homework, paying bills, eating, sleeping, etc. We can often get so distracted by these things that we neglect to make time for prayer. When these things crowd out communion with God, that becomes a problem.
Tiredness
A lack of energy from being busy with life can often leave us feeling unmotivated to pray. In our fleshly weakness, we may let rest or entertainment keep us from time with God. (To be clear, rest is good and entertainment is not bad in and of itself, but tiredness shouldn’t automatically result in prayerlessness.)
Lack of Faith
Maybe some of us don’t think prayer is necessary to prioritize because we’re lacking faith that it will actually benefit us or accomplish something.
Sin
Unconfessed sin can harden our hearts. It can wrongly make us feel too guilty to come to God in prayer, deceive us into thinking that we don’t need to pray, or hinder the effectiveness of our prayers.
While all of these are realistic explanations for why we sometimes don’t pray, none of them excuse prayerlessness.
The Benefits of Being Disciplined in Prayer
Anything worth doing takes effort. Making time to prioritize prayer may be hard at times. However, if it is done with a heart that wants to draw near to God, it is extremely beneficial to us. Prayer is a blessing from the Lord that we would be foolish to neglect.
In our next several articles, we’re going to see why it’s incredibly important to pursue discipline in your prayer life. We’ll see that being disciplined in prayer is vital to your relationship with God, spiritual health, and spiritual effectiveness.