I talk to God throughout the day, why must we make time for formal prayer?
Before we discuss this matter further, it is important to say that every one of us is guilty of this, to different degrees. We are fallen, sinful, and imperfect. But there is Good News, through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross we are made perfect through sanctification.[1] You may ask, what is sanctification, and how is it achieved? Sanctification, put simply, is the process of becoming holy, done by a “steadfast” cooperation with grace so that we may become “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”[2]
Let us first consider if we should set aside intentional time to pray, for this we can look to the saints, our models of Christian perfection. St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina is said to have prayed over 35 rosaries a day. At approximately 15 minutes per rosary that equates to over 8 and a half hours! Surely, this is something that St. Pio accomplished throughout the day in constant mediation, yet he still set aside intentional time to pray. St Pio was so devoted to prayer that his life is noted as being “marked by long hours of prayer.”[3] St. Pio once said “Prayer is the key that opens the heart of God;” so, according to this saint, yes, we should be praying, but is it necessary?
Yes, setting time aside for intentional prayer is necessary. To understand this we must look at both the First Commandment of the Old Testament, “You shall have no other gods before me”[4] and the First Commandment proclaimed by Jesus “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.”[5] What is this telling us? You may think to yourself, “I don’t worship any other gods, and I do love God.” But this is the time to take a hard look and ask ourselves, “Have I prioritized things before God, and am I praying with all my faculties given to me by God?”
If we consider the 10% tithing guidelines, reserving this percentage of time to Christ turns out to be 144 minutes a day. Just our waking moments, approximately 16 hours of the day, would be a reserved 96 minutes to Christ. Are we devoting an hour and a half of our day to God in prayer? These are hard looks we must make as we “work out our own salvation.”[6] What am I doing that is preventing me from time with Christ? Am I putting other ‘gods’ before our true God?
Even though it may not seem, on its face, to be the case, we need to reflect on if we have unintentionally turned things in our life into false gods through an obsession we may have for them. Do these false gods that demand our time and attention, draw us away from the one true God who loves us? Do we have excessive work habits to appease the ‘god’ of consumerism? Excessive extracurriculars to satisfy the ‘god’ of competitiveness, or too much time on a device to please the ‘god’ of social media?
As I said in the beginning; there is Good News in Jesus Christ, for those who want to become “perfect and complete.” Though we must remain steadfast in prayer, and placing God before other things ask for that which we lack.[7]
"Prayer is the best weapon we have; it is the key to God's heart." — Padre Pio
[1] Hebrews 10:14 [2] James 1:4 [3] saintpiofoundation.org/saint-pios-biography [4] Exodus 20:3 [5] Mark 12:30 [6] Philippians 2:12 [7] James 1:4-5