Prayer is Hard Work

I go on many prayer walks around the local estate. On these walks I can pray in two different styles: one is simply pondering & wandering, praying on different topics as I meander the streets, while the other style is more intentional with a clear focus and direction to the prayers. For example the latter might be directly praying for a spiritual openness across the estate.

Both are valid and have their place, but here I want to focus on the second style with the intentional and purposeful prayers as I pass house by house. I discovered that such prayer is hard work! I would find myself physically & mentally tired after such a walk. I had already decided to pray round the estate methodically, so that each section is covered ... but in finding myself so tired it became necessary to divide the estate into zones to be prayed through on different days, so on each occasion I might have fresh strength!

On some walks I would feel like I was carrying a burden, as if walking round with a suitcase or heavy backpack: these were not casual strolls with the bonus of letting my mind wander!

It should not surprise us to understand such focussed prayer as 'hard work', for when we are praying like this we are interacting in the spiritual so that things might be re-arranged (in a Godly way) here in the physical. Just as gardening is physical, or moving around furniture requires strength and effort ... so it is as we pray for movement in the heavenlies concerning a place or situation.

It reminds me of focussed sessions of prayer for an individual ministering in the Holy Spirit - often I would come away from these feeling tired and as if I had just done a work-out. Recall the episode in Exodus 17 where Moses prays over the physical battle, and needs helpers to hold up his arms so he could persist in that prayer until the battle was won.

In Genesis God tasks and empowers humankind to be His stewards over creation (1:26,28 and 2:15). This is a spiritual combined with physical tasking for us. It is easy for us to imagine that the physical aspect can be hard work (especially subsequent to The Fall), but we should accept and tone ourselves up for the hard work in the spiritual as well.