Joyful Awareness

The Goal of Prayer by Pete Wilson:

For most of my life, I’ve viewed prayer as a compartmentalized, spiritual activity. I go from praying, to working, to praying, to spending time with friends, and so on. If that’s how you view your prayer life, where prayer is separate from all other aspects of your life, I think your goal should be to get to a place where praying is almost like breathing.
Scripture mentions this idea of prayer becoming like breathing in a couple of different places throughout the Bible –

Luke 18:1 Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.

Ephesians 6:18 Pray in the Spirit on all occasions…always keep on praying.

1 Thessalonians 5:17 Pray continually.

I’m not saying that there shouldn’t be times when you and God have your focused quiet time, but you want to get to this place where prayer becomes a flow and a part of your life where you’re communicating with God constantly, in every activity throughout the day.

I love how John Ortberg put this, “The goal of prayer is not to get good at praying. The goal of prayer is to live all of my life and speak all of my words in the joyful awareness of the presence of God.”