Reflections from the Retreat on prayer.

When someone hears the words staff and retreat in the same sentence, often times they may cringe.  To be honest, I had never been on a real staff retreat until this past weekend, and I do not know if they are any different from other retreats.  I do know one thing though that impacted me more after the fact than I even realized.  My wife brought something to my attention today that pierced my heart.  She said she wished she could pray like we did at the retreat all the time.  What did she mean?  Well, I am glad  you asked.  Jeremy had a 30 minute prayer time designated before each of the three major planning times.  As I have written in the last few posts, time is sweet in this life, and sometimes I think we take the opportunity we have here upon this earth to pray to our Lord and Savior for granted sometimes.  My wife went a bit further and said she wished she had the time throughout every day to pray three times for 30 minutes or so to the Lord.  I have honestly been thinking about that all afternoon, and well that is why I am writing this post.  Think about it for a minute, yeah I know, time is wasting away right?  But seriously, what if we intentionally made an effort to pray to our Savior intently three times a day for 30 minutes.  We look at the life of Jesus, and more often than not, He is escaping away to a place to pray to His Father, why?  I believe it is because he realized that although he was God, he was still human too, and needed the strength of the Father to revitalize His soul, and He also knew that He needed a close relationship with the Father no matter what whether things were going good or things were going bad. 
If our Savior needed that close of a relationship, how much more do we need to spend time in prayer seeking the face of our King, and reviving our soul through His Spirit, and fellowshiping  with the Father.  That is what we were created for.  We were not created to wander around in a fast paced society of cell phones, text messaging, and emails.  But instead God designed us to walk in fellowship with other brothers and sisters in Christ, holding each other up in prayer, and talking with one another face to face.  You see there is coming a day when we will see Christ face to face and we will no longer need prayer, for we will be able to speak directly to our Savior and Lord.  Yet now we have the opportunity to commune with God in a sweet and intimate way that can only be described in silent awe, because when one has communed with God in prayer we walk away realizing we are nothing and He is everything in our lives.  We will never know that time of communion if we simply do our quick 5-10 minute prayers and think we have truly communed with God.  Now do not misunderstand me, I am not saying those prayers are not heard, but God wants us to commune with Him and He wants to speak back to us in that time, and if we do not sit and wait sometimes we miss the answers because we get swallowed up into this world's desires and struggles.  I cannot help but think of that good hymn about prayer, because it truly echos what should be our hearts cry concerning prayer:

1. Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
   That calls me from a world of care,
   And bids me at my Father’s throne
   Make all my wants and wishes known.
   In seasons of distress and grief,
   My soul has often found relief,
   And oft escaped the tempter’s snare,
   By thy return, sweet hour of prayer!
2. Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
   The joys I feel, the bliss I share,
   Of those whose anxious spirits burn
   With strong desires for thy return!
   With such I hasten to the place
   Where God my Savior shows His face,
   And gladly take my station there,
   And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer!
3. Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
   Thy wings shall my petition bear
   To Him whose truth and faithfulness
   Engage the waiting soul to bless.
   And since He bids me seek His face,
   Believe His Word and trust His grace,
   I’ll cast on Him my every care,
   And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer!
4. Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
   May I thy consolation share,
   Till, from Mount Pisgah’s lofty height,
   I view my home and take my flight.
   This robe of flesh I’ll drop, and rise
   To seize the everlasting prize,
   And shout, while passing through the air,
   “Farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer!”