Prayer is the bedrock of our daily walk with Christ, aside from time in Scripture, there are no rivals. 

Prayer is the sustaining vine that runs through each and every aspect of our life in Jesus, connecting the whole. 

Prayer is what takes the bits and pieces of our ‘regular’ life and meshes it together with our ‘spiritual’ life, revealing that there is no separation, no distinction between the two. Our lives in Christ are inherently spiritual, everything we do, every moment of time, every exertion of effort is spiritual and cannot be understood to be anything other than spiritual. 

About two weeks ago, I began using the Book of Common Prayer app from Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove (Rutba House in NC) and have enjoyed every moment of it. I had made a point of doing my best to walk in prayer on a daily basis, but this has lent so much more direction and intention to that time.

As a family, we pray through the evening prayer together. It’s a beautiful time of sharing that we are deeply enjoying. We pray together, sing together, lift up others in prayer and physically kneel together every night before bed. It’s a precious time.
Three times a day, I allow myself to be guided through what some would call a repetitious cycle of prayer. Morning prayers resonate together, afternoon and evening prayers call back to one another. And while some would call this out and say it sounds ‘Catholic,’ I would answer back and say that it all depends on the heart of the one in prayer. 

And this is the point. Prayer that is spontaneous is not better than prayer that is planned. Both depend on the heart’s position before God. Prayer that is pre-written is not of a differing quality than prayer that is off the cuff. We need to be mindful of our time before the throne either way. 

The point isn’t how we pray without ceasing, it’s that we do. The point isn’t how often we pray, but how we intentionally approach the LORD as we pray. Spontaneous prayer can be just as full or just as empty as planned prayer, and it seems the people who gripe about it the most understand prayer the least. 

When we engage in prayer, a day-long conversation with God, we engage in something beautiful, a Holy meeting, sacred and truly good. Prayer exposes the motivations of our hearts and lays bare our needful condition, our longing for our Savior. 

If you want to use an app, a journal, a reminder on your phone, carrier pigeons or whatever, just do it and be consistent with it. This is an appointment with our Saving King, there is no better use of our time, no greater priority.