As I reflect on my life of faith through my own critical eye of advancing years, I would have to describe my behavior of faithfulness as obsessive-compulsive in nature. This amounts to reality therapy for my life, but the truth is good. I used to do things just because I’d always done them in just that way—exactly that way!

This borders on the absurd, I know, but I still see some flecks of that in my other activities of life today. An example is when I find myself neatly folding the used sweetener packets so as not to leave a mess on the restaurant table. This is not a big deal, but it is indicative of habitual behavior.

This carries over into our lives of faith practice: how and where and when we pray; the order of our prayers; what extra-biblical materials we use in our praying; whether we use candles or beads or other items to assist us; whether we pray aloud or silently; using King James English or a modern language; even the time of day. You get the picture.

What I have found is the joy—and indeed the need—TO PRAY ALL THE TIME! I find this in the account of the post Ascension church in Acts 1.14: They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. What I hear the Lord saying to his church is that we need to be flexible in our praying: DO ALL MANNER OF PRAYING WITH ALL OF OUR HEARTS—ALL THE TIME!