Talking With God 24/7

Talking with God 24/7

Anna

Read: Luke 2:21-38

Julie opened her e-mail account and found a long list of prayer requests waiting. Oh well, she sighed, it’s not as if I haven’t got the time. She adjusted the wheelchair that had carried her since the accident that paralyzed her thirty years before. Sometimes she couldn’t help thinking how things might have been different, but not this morning. Today, Julie was determined to live up to her nickname, “Prayer Warrior on Wheels.”

Anna the prophetess also had a powerful prayer ministry. She was widowed after only seven years of marriage, so she stayed at the Temple day and night, worshiping God through fasting and prayer. Many scholars believe that Anna was more than one hundred years old. God richly rewarded her dedication to serving him through prayer. She was one of the first people to see and recognize the Messiah, when he was a little over a month old. Her joy and excitement over this privilege spilled out as she immediately began telling others about Jesus.

Believers today have God’s Spirit living in them. Since our bodies are God’s temple (see 1 Corinthians 6:19), we are like Anna in living at this temple day and night. Like Anna, we are also called to be in continual prayer. At first, this sounds impossible, since many of us define prayer as an extended period of time alone or something we do only in a certain place.

Having a consistent quiet time is important, but God wants prayer to be a natural part of our day-to-day lives, like breathing. He is with us at every moment in our joys, petty annoyances, and serious problems. No matter where we are or what’s happening around us, we can develop the habit of an ongoing conversation with God. He is looking for an army of prayer warriors like Anna and Julie.

Never stop praying.

1 Thessalonians 5:17