I Thessalonians 5:17 “Pray without ceasing.”
Philippians 4:6 “Be careful for nothing: but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”
Luke 18:1 “And he spake a parable unto them, to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint”
Ephesians 6:18 “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints”
A few weeks ago, I had a unique opportunity to be a part of the International Motor Sports Association race activities at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Thanks to a God-ordained connection, I was able to open the Saturday evening race in prayer, speak at the driver’s meeting on Sunday and open their meeting in prayer, lead a chapel service at the raceway, and then open the main race on Sunday in prayer. It was a series of pinch-myself moments.
After my prayer on Saturday night, I was notified that the Race Director wanted to talk to me. I wondered why. I had just prayed in Jesus’s name, as I always do, and thought that she was going to ask me to not pray in His name during the main race. But, I was pleasantly surprised with what she really wanted me to do differently.
She said that she appreciated my prayer for the race that evening, but there was one problem. “What is that?” I asked. “You need to pray more; you need to pray longer,” she said.
Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever heard that before!
Of course, I asked why. She explained that the timing of the flyby for Sunday’s race was based on a 60 second prayer and a 90 second national anthem. If I were off, it would cause the flyby to be off as well. As someone who had performed an F-15E flyby of a race, I understood completely. I couldn’t pray for 45 seconds like I had done on Saturday, but needed to pray for 60 seconds on Sunday (which provided an interesting constraint on its own). I needed to pray more and l needed to pray longer!
We all do!
PLEASE RECOGNIZE THE IMPORTANT TRUTH THAT WE ALL NEED TO PRAY MORE FOR OUR NATION AND FOR EVERY ASPECT OF OUR LIVES. We must pray longer and we must pray more!
