As I went to prayer this morning I wanted to get done so I could get on with the work I had to do.  I’m working on my lectures for a class that starts in less than a week and I have very little done!  Some of my own thoughts from last week’s prayer and fasting kept coming to mind.  Thoughts about silence and waiting upon God in the secret place.  I had an agenda for my prayer time: to finish!  What is God’s agenda?  I can discover that two ways.  First, by praying God’s prayer.  We learned about that at Saturday’s prayer and fasting meeting.  (Here is the handout.)  Second, by making space for God to speak in silence, meditation, and worship.  Silence and meditation are the first to go when prayer is hurried. 

There is another (fleshly) reason to eliminate silence and meditation from prayer.  I sensed in myself this morning some apprehension about what God might say or reveal to me in prayer.  I have some things that I have subconsciously swept under the rug and I sensed God picking up the rug.  So being busy and hurried may not be the reason for wanting to finish quickly after all.  Do you talk a lot and rush in prayer because God’ voice in uncomfortable for you to hear?  Me too.

Prayer and fasting week is over, but prayer and fasting is never “over”.  If you had a great week of prayer last week then pick up this week where that left off.  Sure, you can’t always devote the same focus to prayer and fasting (really?), but that doesn’t mean that such an experience with God is to be relegated to one or two weeks out of the year.  Weeks of prayer and fasting are meant to set a tone for the year, not to be the highlight! 

Now, pray, meditate, sit in silence, worship, pray the Lord’s prayer pattern.  Enjoy the presence of God.  Let Him speak without fear.  Let Him pull up the rug.  Let Him into the silence.