Download Email

“Don’t Treat Prayer Like A Spare Tire”

Mike Johnson
09/16/10

Do you spend a lot of time thinking about the spare tire in your automobile?  Most people do not.  In fact, many do not even check to see if they have a spare tire in their trunk.  However, there is a time when all attention is focused on the spare tire, and that is when one of the other tires goes flat.  Suddenly, in this emergency, the spare tire gets much attention.

Many people treat prayer in the same way that people treat their spare tire.  They neglect prayer most of the time and only turn to it in cases of emergency.  Prayer is not a part of their lives, but it is just something that they occasionally turn to when there is some great need.

Prayer should be an important part of the life of the child of God.  It should not be an occasional endeavor.  Jesus prayed a great deal, and we are to be followers of Jesus.  The question has been raised, “How can a prayerless person be a follower of Him who prayed so much?”

I Thessalonians 5:17 says, “Pray without ceasing.”  This does not mean that we are to be involved in non-stop prayer.  Instead, “without ceasing” means “constantly recurring.”  It means that we are to be regularly involved in prayer.  We are to never abandon it; it is to be a part of our lives.

Another important passage is Romans 12:12.  This passage says that we are to “continue instant” in prayer.  The New American Standard Bible says “devoted to prayer.”

We need to make sure that we do not treat prayer like people sometimes treat their spare tire.  Prayer should not simply be something that we turn to in an emergency.  Instead, it should be an important part of our lives.

“Prayer is not a way of making use of God; prayer is a way of offering ourselves to God in order that He should be able to make use of us.” – William Barclay

From The Lakeview Lamp, Hendersonville, TN. www.BibleSaints.com