Are You Praying?

I try to do it on my own. I can't do it alone, but that honestly doesn't stop me from trying. I am a terribly stubborn creature, and I believe that I should be able to handle it. Well, get this. I am SO wrong. I wasn't created to handle it. Huh. 

Yesterday I had some stuff going on. It's personal, so let's just leave it at that. What it comes down to, though, is that I didn't know what to do. I was scared, frustrated, and confused. A few different times during the day I felt God urging me to just pray and talk to Him about it. Well, I didn't. Not until this morning. 

I woke up and started journaling all the things that were going on in my head. I started to write to God rather than just the paper in the book. Once I finished up there I looked over and saw my Bible on the table by my bed. Poor lonely thing... I haven't been spending nearly enough time there.  

I flipped it open, turned a stack more of pages back and then sat there dumbfounded for a few seconds as I read the simple note I had left in the margins. 

"Are you praying?"

What? These verses don't speak once about praying. Why is that written here? But no, I guess I'm not doing very well at all in that area. . . . 

Luke 16:10 says:
"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much."

If I cannot be trusted to pray when I am prompted, and that being such a simple thing, how can I expect that I will be given any greater task? I am told to "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). This doesn't mean that I have to stay on my knees constantly and never lift my bowed head, but it does mean that I have to have a constant attitude of prayer. I have to constantly realize that God is the one who is sovereign. I have to consciously pray whenever I am anxious or fretting about anything. 

I honestly don't know if I will ever get it down. I am failing so aptly that I doubt myself sometimes. No, I doubt myself often. I ask to hear God's voice, but if I am not speaking to Him, and I am not listening when He speaks to me, what is the point? I may as well go on and live my life as though He didn't exist. THAT is a scary thought. Thank heaven it is one that I never have to see in reality. 

In all that, I guess what I am saying is that when God prompts us to do something, we need to do it. And if that is to pray, then we need to do it. And do it then. If it is something larger, then do that also because He trusts you to do greater things for Him. 

The next time I run across that note in the margins of my bible I want to be able to answer the question with a sound "yes." Yes, I AM praying.