Here's a real story: I'm really bad with calling people, except my parents whom I call almost every day. All other people, even though I care deeply for them- I'm not so great at getting keeping in touch. There was a time when I didn't call my grandma for ages, and she fell poorly, I didn't know about it at all, and when I finally called, she said "I thought you have forgotten about me". Even now, thinking about it, I have tears in my eyes. My Babcia thought that I have forgotten. How could I? But I didn't talk to her for so long, and I missed so much from her life. The truth is, other things were priorities over somebody I love deeply.
Prayer is exactly like that. We don't find time to pray, because it doesn't seem important enough. But when you love someone, you have desire to spend time with that person. You want to talk to him and share your love for them. Talking to that important person in your life helps you to get to know him.
Do you love Jesus? Do you know Jesus? Do you want to know Him? Then you need to pray.
If you pray 7 minutes in the morning and 7 minutes in the evening, that 14 minutes of your day. That's about 1% of your day. I find this amount of time pathetic. It is simply not enough. It's a really good starting point, so if you struggle to find time to prayer, aim for that 14 minutes a day for now. But, ultimately, we should spend so much more time in prayer. It doesn't need to be a single block of time, it doesn't need to be the same sort of prayer. I have different kinds of prayer for different times of the day or different days. At the end of the day though, we need to really strive for what St Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians: "pray constantly" (5:16). Our whole life should be a hymn of God's glory.
I used to think that I had no time to pray, or no time to do all the prayers that I wanted to do over the course of the day. And then I had a close look at the way I spend my time outside of work and thought: "I spend so much time doing nothing in particular." You probably know the feeling of browsing aimlessly through Youtube, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram hoping to find some form of entertainment. Before you know it, an hour flies by and you haven't really achieved anything, ou haven't relaxed and you are just more restless than before.
Use that dead time for prayer. Put your phone under a cushion on the sofa so that you are not tempted to have a little peek at the screen, and talk to the Lord (I seriously do that, removing temptations is the best way of fighting temptations). Pray while you drive. Pray when you wash up the dishes. Controversial idea, pray in the shower. Pray wherever you are. The space is unimportant. Just turn your attention to God and praise him. Tell him all your sorrows and ask for healing.
And, if you have to, wake up early (or stay up late). When Mr Magic lived in the US, I used to wake up ridiculously early to talk to him before he went to bed. It was important, so I made time for this. It wasn't particularly pleasant, but that was the only way at the time. The thing is, God is waiting for you with such longing to hear about your day, to hear what's in the depths of your heart. Make time for Him. It's so worth it.
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