Not Wanting “Intensive Prayer” (Whatever That Even Means)?

A client asked, “What does it mean to have a time of intensive prayer?”

I mean, what if you’re not in a place where you think, “Hurray for intensity! SIGN ME UP!”

Here is my favorite “intensive prayer” story. 

Back in 2007, when we lived in Boulder, our friends invited us to pray for our small hippie church over the summer. We had been losing numbers gradually, and since we weren’t a large assembly to begin with, we had concern for that gathering for the long term. 

Phil and I agreed to pray. 

I’ve never asked Phil how much he prayed, but I know that my prayers looked like an occasional request lobbed toward heaven (a few times a week maybe?). “Lord, what do you have for us next?” 

In that season, that was my “time of intensive prayer,” because I was in the midst of diapers and child training and homeschooling, with children ages 5, 3, and 1, and was not doing anything that would take much time away from keeping little people alive.

I hardly expected anything dramatic to come out of it, other than maybe some form of general guidance, in the tradition of “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” 

So I was praying more diligently than normal, but from the outside, those occasional single sentence prayers wouldn’t have looked like much.

So it came as a great surprise to me when the Lord said, “Go start a farm” to me, and “move to a farm,” to my husband … on the same day.

That had not been our career path, but it was unmistakable for both of us, and so we did.

So a time of intensive prayer, at that season of my life, looked like single sentence prayers.

When Bob goes into a time of intensive prayer, his family knows that they shouldn’t expect much interaction from him. His prayer time is more all-consuming. 

Some years, I try to say a one-sentence prayer every time my fasting decision bumps up against my reality. If I’m only doing liquids for a week (smoothies and soups and such things), every time I think about solid food or chewing, I say a single-sentence prayer.

If I’m doing a soul fast, seeking to avoid accusatory thoughts toward myself or someone else, every time I notice one, I pray.

If I’m intermittent fasting, during those last few hours before I break fast, and my stomach growls, I say a prayer.

That’s “intensive” enough for me.

Which is to say: we all get to define for ourselves what “a time of intensive prayer” might look like. No one needs to feel excluded! You are invited!

Maybe a simple reading, morning and night, out of our book Pursue: https://happybooks.me/pursue. 

And then occasional single-sentence prayers as you go about your day.

Or perhaps God will call you to more.

But you are invited to join us in listening for God's voice and direction in a more focused way. 

Lord, thank you for Psalm 116:1: “I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy.” Thank you, Lord, that you hear our voice. Thank you that even one sentence prayers are not lost to you, but they matter. Teach us to walk in your ways. Amen.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and King Jesus the Lord,

Amy Joy

You are invited! Sign up for the Prayer Refresh, an email series with short prayers to pray as you go about your day. The first five readers all wrote me at different times and said, “This is changing my life.”