Living on a prayer (4)

What's the one thing we absolutely have to do in the mornings before we feel good to go? A shower, coffee, breakfast or a makeup routine? Now think: what would it take to make us abandon that? It would probably take something totally unexpected or serious to cause us to forgo or forget our daily 'fix'.

Bible scholar Tom Wright asks that question when talking on the cost of discipleship, as seen in Matthew 8:18-22. The idea is that the call of Jesus is more urgent, more impossibly immediate, than even our most precious priorities. How did this bear out in the lives of his first followers? It seems like they took his words in Matthew pretty seriously. And, the way they did that was first through prayer. Colossians 4:2 NIV says, 'Devote yourselves to prayer,' and in Acts 1:14 (NIV) we find that, 'they all joined together constantly in prayer.' The most urgent thing in the lives of the early Church was prayer. So much so that, when there was a decision to be made, they would travel for days to pray together.

How do we respond to Jesus' call to make him first in our daily routine? Does it frame our days, like it did for them?



So what now? Before going to sleep, put your phone on airplane mode. When you wake up, rather than reaching out for your phone, let your first thought be Jesus' call to 'Follow me', and your first words be prayer.





— SCRIPTURE —

'I have... treasured his words more than daily food.' Job 23:12 NLT
— SOULFOOD —

Deut 18-21, Matt 8:18-34, Ps 44:1-8, Pro 12:7-9