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Q. Why is a daily prayer time so important?

A. In Jesus' great exemplary prayer, He told His disciples to ask God "this day" for "our daily bread." Twice in that compact petition is the expectation that we are, indeed, to pray every day. Daily encounter with God is a key to vital Christianity.

Give us some examples.

Evangelical statesman John R. W. Stott recently was profiled in a magazine. He starts each day with a regular routine of prayer, Bible reading, and reflection. How has Stott accomplished so much? By not devoting every hour to work, but by devoting the first hour to worship.

I read this week of Father Maximilian Kolbe, a brilliant Christian scholar and priest whose Jewish ancestry doomed him to Auschwitz.

Kolbe is famous for having volunteered to take the place of a man condemned to die in the concentration camp. Kolbe's breathtaking act of love, however, was no momentary heroic. It was the natural act of a Christian whose nature had been shaped by daily worship and daily service.

Biographer Susan Bergman writes: "It is beyond most of us, I suppose, to imagine Kolbe giving his life for another human being, soldering his will to the will of a loving God . …But there is Kolbe, leading the others in the darkness of that death cell in Auschwitz each day in prayer and singing."

Kolbe could lead in worship and then act as the Lord he worshipped, because he was used to it. He did it, literally, every day of the week.

John Stackhouse Jr. teaches theology and culture at Regent College, Vancouver, B.C.

Adapted from: Faith Today (7-8/01) by permission.

Copyright © 2002 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Oh God, I want to stay focused on You this week. Help me to turn to You frequently—and find it increasingly the natural thing to do.

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