(In case you’re wondering, The Time Paradox is my favorite book in the series.)
I recently completed my first read-through of the entire Artemis Fowl series, so I thought I’d take a little break from writing Little Women-based posts and move on to Artemis Fowl-based posts.
(Also, this is not based on the movie. At all.)
But I digress.
In the books, a central plot point is how a fairy, like LEP Officer Holly Short, can only use their magic if they’ve done a Ritual. If they go too long without recharging, then they are effectively useless. And Holly, well, she gets busy sometimes. And other times, she just procrastinates. She knows that she should be doing the Ritual, but Holly always makes up excuses in her head as to why she can’t do it right now.
And, of course, this gets her into trouble in multiple instances. There are several points in the story where she runs out of magic at a critical time (okay, maybe this also helps to make the plot more interesting, too, but we won’t talk about that), or someone’s life is put into jeopardy because she doesn’t have her magic. There are also several remarks and questions as to why Holly is never “running hot”—a.k.a., why she is never full of magic.
And it occurred to me as I was reading yet another one of Holly’s failures to do the Ritual: isn’t this a lot like prayer?
Let me put it like this.
Holly needs the Ritual to have any power. Without it, her life gets messy and she makes mistakes that she wouldn’t typically make. In the same way, Christians need prayer to be effective. Without praying, our lives become messy and we make mistakes. Without prayer, we can feel disconnected from God, who is our source of power.
But, also like Holly, we can sometimes make excuses for why we don’t need to pray. Maybe our lives are too hectic. Maybe we’ll get to it tomorrow. Maybe we’re too hungry to do it before a meal. Maybe we’re too tired to do it at night and too pressed for time to do it in the morning. But if we have that attitude, like Holly Short often does about her own Ritual, then we’ll find ourselves trapped in the same problems. We’ll grow more distant, more spiritually tired, and it will be easier to fall out of habit with prayer. We’ll start to neglect it merely because it becomes muscle memory to do so.
So, what do we do to get out of this rut of neglecting prayer?
Firstly, remember to emphasize its importance.
Frequently in the Bible we see Jesus would withdraw from crowds to pray, like in Luke 5:15-16. “Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places to pray.” Jesus could have easily considered Himself “too busy” to pray, but he placed an emphasis on it that we need to do as well. Jesus was perfect and our example—so, if He considered talking to God that important, then we should as well.
Secondly, make time for it.
This point also ties into the last Bible verse. Jesus made time for it because it was important; the vice versa is also true. We have to have a routine and get into a habit of praying. We have to take short little slides of our day and say, “no excuses. I am going to pray here.”
It doesn’t have to be long chunks of time, either. We’ll get into this more later, but pausing for 5 seconds to say thank you or ask God to help you is just as effective as praying an hour. God will meet you where you are.
Lastly, look at how we should be praying.
During his ministry, Jesus gave some excellent guidelines on prayer. Let’s look at a few of them.
Don’t babble incessantly like the pagans did to make themselves seem holy or important.
Don’t do it for attention out in public. (No, this doesn’t mean to NOT pray when you’re in public, but it does mean to NOT make a scene when you pray in public to try and gain attention.)
“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (Matthew 6:6-8)
Don’t do it to praise yourself/pat yourself on the back. Don’t compare yourself (or your prayers) to other people. Everyone prays differently, and we shouldn’t criticize people for the way they pray or use it to build ourselves up. (I.E., “I pray for three hours each day, so I’m a much better person than Joe Blow who only prays for a few minutes!”)
“To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
‘But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
‘I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’” (Luke 18:9-14)“Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” (Mark 12:38-40)
Don’t pray if you’re holding anger or bitterness in your heart against someone and refuse to forgive them.
“If you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” Matthew 5:23-24
Don’t just pray with empty words or go through the motions; pray what’s on your heart.
Don’t do it just as an obligation or because you think you have to just so you can fulfill some Christian obligation. Do it because you desire it!
“These people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” (Mark 7:6-7)
Don’t get so wrapped up in finding the right words for your request or stressed out that it has to be “perfect.” We have the Holy Spirit, who can help you pray when you can’t figure out what to say. God knows when our hearts our breaking our when our joy overflows and we can’t find the human words to express the language of our souls.
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” (Romans 8:26-27)
Finally, let’s look at Jesus also gave us the model prayer to tell us what was important: “Our Father Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven. Give us today our daily bread and forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.” We can look at this to find out what we should be praying for:
Praising/thanking God (hallowed be Thy name/for Thine is the Kingdom)
Asking for God’s will and praying for the Kingdom of God (Thy Kingdom come...)
Take care of our day-to-day needs (daily bread)
Forgiveness (forgive our debts)
Help us to forgive others (as we forgive our debtors)
Keep us strong and away from temptation and the devil (lead us not…)
Notice that Jesus didn’t give a thirty-page thesis on how to pray. He didn’t say that the length of your prayers equated to holiness, either. His prayer was succinct and taught us what we need to be praying for. God knows our hearts and our prayers and can answer them whether they’re 4 seconds or 4 hours. All we have to do is...pray.
So, in closing, let me ask you a paraphrase of the question that Holly Short often gets asked: are you running hot on prayer?
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