Analysis Of Too Busy Not To Pray

“Too Busy Not to Pray”, was an interesting and informational book. It was an eye-opening read for me. I’ve been an Adventist my entire life. I’ve grown up in the church and I’ve been taught from a young age the importance of prayer. I know how to pray. However, I don’t pray with the frequency and intensity that I should. The constant pressures of college and the busyness of everyday life seem to overshadow my relationship with God. I often put my studies and social life above my spiritual life.

Hybels, in “Too Busy Not to Pray,” is very straightforward and blunt about the danger of not cultivating our spiritual life through prayer. Often times we forget to pray at all. Or if we do pray, we don’t really think about it. We ask God for help with

In Chapter Six, Hybels lays out a "Pattern for Prayer." This pattern is the ACTS pattern and stands for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication. I don’t think that it matters how we pray, either way God will listen. But, by following this pattern we can create balance in our prayer life. For most of my life, my prayers have been pretty out of balance—weighted heavily toward the "supplication" side of things. However, since reading “Too Busy Not To Pray” I have personally begun to follow ACTS and have also started writing a prayer journal to God.

Before I began following ACTS, I didn’t make time for a personal devotional with God. My day started out rushed and I was always worried about small, insignificant things. But, keeping a journal has taught me to make a habit of getting up every morning to spend some private time with God. I’ve found that morning time with Him leads to a less stressful and less rushed day.

When Hybels compared prayer to a workout regime, I think he was spot on. If you go to a gym, you’ll see examples of imbalance; the super strong who can’t run around the track and the cardiovascular elite with no upper body strength. Imbalanced prayer, just like imbalanced exercise, can lead to an unhealthy, skewed relationship with God and to an inadequate understanding of

But, I also learned that during prayer, the content of my heart, content of my prayers, and the way in which I receive His response are just as important. Before I pray, I must make sure I don’t have any prayer busters (problems in the life of the praying person) standing in the way of my communication with God. I must also carry out three “tests” for my prayers. Hybels challenged us to ask whether our prayers are consistent with Scripture, consistent with our spiritual gifts, and whether they promote servanthood or self.

Lastly, the book discussed answers to prayers. It made one thing clear. God always answers our prayer. One quote I really enjoyed from the book was this: “If the request is wrong, God says, ‘No.’ If the timing is wrong, God says, ‘Slow.’ If you are wrong, God says,‘Grow.’ But, if the request is right, the timing is right and you are right, God says, ‘Go!’’ (86) There can be many ways he communicates His answers to us. He may communicate through His word, speak to us through people in our lives, or through direct promptings of the Holy Spirit. God wants to speak to us, we just have to learn how to listen to