My church is doing a study on prayer right now, and I cannot adequately share the timeliness of this in my life. Isn’t that how God does things? He knows just what we need, when we need it, how we need to receive it, and all things related to it!

As is often true of sermon series such as these, we were encouraged to make time (not just take time) for prayer. In fact, our pastor helped us to see that we may need to give up something in order to make time for prayer over these next forty days (and perhaps beyond): social media, television, etc. So, in my excuse-making mind, here’s how the process went:

• I’ll do a forty-day Facebook fast. Oh wait, my job as an editor and self-publishing specialist requires me to have a fairly consistent social media presence. Not gonna work.
• I’ll give up “pleasure television.” Oh wait, that’s something my mom and I do together when we watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy together almost nightly. Not gonna happen.
• I’ll give up my thirty minutes of daily exercise. Um…not a good idea…especially since I’m pretty inconsistent at that already! Shouldn’t happen.
• I’ll get up an hour earlier. I already get up around 5:30 a.m., and I have a pretty established morning routine. Probably not the best option for me.

So, I did what I should have done in the first place: I said, “Lord, you set the appointment time, and I’ll show up.”

Well, let me share a little story with you first. Several years ago now I was asked to teach a ladies’ Bible study on Wednesday nights at my church. If I taught the class, it was also to be my own material, meaning extra study and preparation time. My schedule at that time was jam-packed, and I was working 65-70 hours a week and had a few other obligations as well. Though I thought it might not work for me to fit in another thing, I sincerely believed that God had opened up this opportunity for me. So, similar to how I prayed this week, I said at that time, “Lord, if you’ll provide the study time, I’ll say yes.” That night, and every single night until the very last night of the class (and not one day beyond that), I woke up, wide awake, mind you, at 2:00 a.m. I studied diligently for one hour, and then I grew tired at 3:00, went back to bed, and slept soundly the rest of the night.

I never once set an alarm clock for those middle-of-the-night study sessions.

So back to this week’s story. God seems to like setting my One-on-one time with Him for additional prayer at…you guessed it…2:00 a.m. So, I’ve been heading over to my “prayer chair” (the ugliest old blue recliner you’ll ever lay eyes on but that I’ll never throw away) at 2:00 a.m. and leaving the rest to God. No alarm, just a commitment to obey His leading.

I don’t share this out of pride, but I share it out of a desire to communicate the fact that God will honor your commitments to Him and His to you. You don’t need a sermon series to tell you that you need to spend time with Him. You need to act on your desire, your need, your privilege to have access to the almighty and awesome God of the universe. It may not be in the middle of the night for you, but whenever your best time is, it’s time to pray!