Today is the National Day of Prayer. While the Bible urges us to “pray continually” (1 Thess.5:17), many of us could use reminders that we need to talk to God more regularly and more meaningfully.

Occasionally I will read a book on prayer in order to re-energize my prayer life. I am currently reading “Vertical with Jesus: A 30-Day Journey to Impact Kingdom Living”, by David and Kim Butts. The premise of the book is that we must keep our vertical relationship with God strong in order to have effective horizontal relationships with those around us. In the introduction, the authors write: “The great crisis for the Christian is that commitment to Christ means an earnest desire to serve others—meeting real needs, and seeing the kingdom advance. Without careful attention to our vertical call in Christ, we can find ourselves consumed by the horizontal. The horizontal focus on even kingdom-centered work can lead to burnout and an unhealthy emphasis on our own efforts and work. Desiring to advance Christ’s kingdom, we instead can find ourselves building our own little kingdoms.”

Of course we all want to have the greatest positive impact on the people around us. However, in order to do that we must first focus on staying connected to God in prayer. We must follow the example of Jesus—“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” (Mark 1:35).

Let us pray.