So Many Needs, So Little Time
by Tricia McCary Rhodes
Lately, a lot of loose ends have been cluttering my prayer life. Requests keep piling up, and I just can't get to them all. Though it's exhilarating to be a part of today's great prayer movement, I'm afraid that modern technology is wreaking havoc with my heart. I receive urgent prayer requests from missionaries across the globe via email almost daily. I used to consult the internet for prayer web sites, but they've become overwhelming to me. One page I've bookmarked lists over 140 of them!
The Christian media blitzes my home almost nonstop with the daunting task of reaching the world for Christ. Not only do I feel compelled to pray for Muslims during Ramadan, but the Hindus, the persecuted church and the entire 1040 window each require their own 30 day focus. Most recently I have been challenged to join millions of Americans in 40 days of praying and fasting for our spiritual leaders and revival in our land.
Every time I turn around, another wonderful prayer event is taking place. My church has upped the ante on our monthly day of prayer and fasting, now asking us to fast and pray once a week. My heart has been captured by a small village of unreached people in India, but there are 550,000 such villages -- dare I ignore them? What about Bangladesh and Iran and Uzbechistan? I could easily "pray without ceasing," and never get to the needs of my own family or neighborhood, much less anything personal.
A Prayer Junkie
As thrilling as all the emphasis on global prayer must be to God's heart, I find myself feeling like a prayer junkie on the brink of an overdose. I have mulled this over a great deal. No, I don't think I could ever pray too much. But I do deal each day with the dangers of prayer request overload.
When I began a ministry of prayer 27 years ago, I focused mainly on my personal sphere of influence, occasionally addressing mission causes. Today I am called upon to reach out and touch the entire world in prayer -- a task I've come to realize, quite frankly, is impossible for me. What concerns me the most is that my heart might become desensitized, perhaps even cynical to the urgent needs of a lost and dying world in the face of information overload.
Perhaps you encounter the same struggle. Maybe you also live with the frustration of too many requests and too little time. Maybe like me, you love Pray! magazine, but pick it up with a nagging concern that you will discover one more thing that needs to be added to your ministry of intercession. If information overload is threatening to devour your passion for prayer, take heart. As I laid my heart before God about this issue, He spoke four truths to me. Perhaps they will minister to you as well.
1. It's all too easy to substitute the activity of prayer for the reality of relationship with Him. I know that I am way out of balance when intercession becomes a series of requests, with little time for the One who has the power to grant them. Every day I must tarry in the presence of my heavenly Father who wants to spend time and grow in intimacy with me -- not just toss answers to me.
2. His load is light, and I must therefore learn to bear only the burdens He gives. If I'm feeling overloaded, it's possible I'm carrying a weight in prayer that God hasn't given me. I should never take on a long term prayer need or focus without bringing it to Him first for guidance.
3. The spiritual destiny of others does not rest on my shoulders. I pray out of obedience, in faith, and always encouraged by the mystery of answered prayer. But God can do His work with or without me. I am not indispensable.
4. I must never measure my own call to pray against that of others. There will always be those who pray more, and those who pray less. Intercession is not a competition for God's attention. He is there for each of us by His grace every moment of every day.
I am convinced we are living in the most exciting era since Christ ascended to His Father, and the prayer movement is a vital demonstration of all God is doing through His body. I want to be faithful in prayer, urgently storming the gates of heaven until the day Christ returns and says "Well done, my good and faithful servant." (Matthew 25:21). But to do so I've discovered I must not be consumed by the vast number of needs that enter into my home every day via modern technology. Instead, I need to look to the Author and Finisher of my faith. Keeping my eyes on Him is the only way I can run the race He sets before me in prayer.
(Originally published in Pray! Magazine, Issue 8, Sept/Oct, 1998)
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