What is the value of prayer?

Sometimes it is very hard to pray - it can feel so lame and repetetive. I once read an exhortation to "let your praying become doing, and your doing praying."

(I've never been able to find where this qote came from, so if any of you can help me out, I'd be grateful!) For some reason it has stuck with me, and I've spent the past few years trying to "go and learn what this means." It is a hard lesson. Colossians 4:2 says we should be devoted to prayer - so, as a first point if we are doing what the Word says then doing does become praying. And prayer, I've noticed, is convicting. Yes, that ugly word. But conviction leads to action, and that is how praying becomes doing. There is another side to the coin though; if you don't do one, you will undoubtably fail to do the other (even if you don't notice that you're failing). Letting your praying become doing is a way of communing with God in all things, not just during your devotional time; instead, it moves that devotional time into every moment of your day because everything falls under the category "doing."

Here is what I mean: When I pray, I mean when I devote myself to prayer, keeping alert in it, I am much more aware of the needs around me and my own need for God in every aspect, every moment of my life. Having this awareness makes me much more ready to seize the opportunities that come each day to listen to, comfort and encourage those around me. My ears are also more open to hear God's answers to my own prayers. And as I live in these good works, I am continually reminded of how limited I am to actually do any of them on my own - without Christ I can do nothing. So I am driven daily to my knees, to ask for the wisdom, discernment and discipline, and especially love that enables me to do the good works that have been prepared for me beforehand. It's a circlular process.

However, if I forget to pray and just coast through my busy day, it becomes very easy to miss the important moments in relationships and fail to take the opportunities to serve people around me. The more I neglect prayer, the more I fail to act righteously, the more I fail, the more I feel guilty, and the more I feel guilty, the harder it gets to pray. The cycle moves both ways.

I'm not trying to be formulaic, but I've seen this cycle in my life over and over again. I think the above quote expresses something about the way in which we commune with God. It's so easy to let our prayers become a list of favors, things we want Him to do for us. Then we often end up waiting around for something to happen. But if we let our praying become doing and our doing praying, we play a much more active role in the process; life in Christ becomes much more exciting.