O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen on your walls; they will pray day and night, continually. Take no rest, all you who pray to the Lord. (Isaiah 62:6)

Read: Isaiah 62:6-65:25, Philippians 2:19-3:3, Psalm 73:1-28, Proverbs 24:13-14

Relate: I tend to read a lot. If there is such a thing as reading too much, I skirt that line awfully close. It isn’t just fluff that I like to read either. Some of my recent titles would be Pax (Tom Holland’s third book on the Roman Empire, covering the time from the death of Nero through Hadrian), Telling the Gospel through Story (Using Bible Storying as evangelism and discipleship), Grasping God’s Word (Hermeneutics), and The Wood Between the Worlds (devotional reflections on how the cross impacts various contemporary topics).

Goodreads says I have read one hundred twenty-three books so far this year. I have an anual goal of over a hundred books, but I really need to up that because it hasn’t been real a challenge in quite a while. I have read more than seventy-five books a year every year since I started keeping track in ’06 and since ’19 I have read at least 109 every year. The most common question people like to ask on hearing this is, “What is your favorite book?” That is a tough one to answer. There are just so many. This year is a tough one, but I would probably say Virtuous Minds by Philip Dow.

All In by Mark Batterson is probably the most influential book I have ever read outside the Bible but another book that joins it on my shortlist of all-time favorites has got to be Practising the Presence. It is one of the shortest and easiest reads I have ever picked up. It probably takes less than an hour to go from cover to cover. But it is also one of the hardest, most challenging reads I have ever read. Brother Lawrence was an illiterate monk who served in the kitchens half his waking life and spent his other half in prayer. Over time, his discipline and devotion were such that, wherever he was, whatever he was doing, the man was in steady constant prayer.

React: I have my devotions in the morning. Then, by the time I have stepped out the door to start my day, my mind has run in a thousand directions. Someone shoves their way to the front of the queue to get on the bus or subway, and I’ve got words running through my mind that certainly not prayer. Little things throughout the day, some good, others… not, tend to pull my mind in a thousand directions.

God has called me to be an intercessor. I have no doubt about this. It is stronger a stronger pull in my life than that to be a writer, or a teacher, or a witness, or a… “worker for Daddy” on foreign soil. (We don’t use the “M” word around here. More than any of these, my primary calling is that of an intercessor. So why is it so difficult for me, for us to live up to the directive given here in Isaiah? “I have posted watchmen on your walls; they will pray day and night, continually. Take no rest, all you who pray to the Lord.” Why can I not follow Paul’s directive to “pray without ceasing”? I know it can be done. God does not call us to the impossible. Brother Lawrence is evidence of how it can be, but the discipline in getting there is…

Respond: 

Dear God,
I come to You again in prayer. Let me never leave. Even though I have to step from this moment to continue forward in my life, please go with me. Help me to develop the discipline of constant and consistent communication with You every moment of every minute in my life. Help me to practice the presence of living a life that is ever surrendered to You. Keep my mind from wandering. Give me a touchstone, or a reminder point that will constantly pull my mind back to You no matter where I am and no matter what I am doing.
Amen