Is There Grass on Your Path?

“In one region of Africa, the first converts to Christianity were very diligent about praying. In fact, the believers each had their own special place outside the village where they went to pray in solitude. The villagers reached these “prayer rooms” by using their own private footpaths through the brush. When grass began to grow over one of these trails, it was evident that the person to whom it belonged was not praying very much. Because these new Christians were concerned for each other’s spiritual welfare, a unique custom sprang up. Whenever anyone noticed an overgrown “prayer path,” he or she would go to the person and lovingly warn, “Friend, there’s grass on your path!”

- (RWD Our Daily Bread, November 18, 1996).

 

Many years ago, I read this beautiful little story about the Christians in Africa, and I am often reminded of it if I go for a walk in the bush and see a distinct path leading off into the distance.

 

How confronting would it be if we had such a visual way to tell how often we spent in prayer in our modern lives?

 

It makes me stop and think, is there grass on my path? Is my prayer life so neglected that my path is overgrown with weeds, the track barely discernible?

 

Do I have weeds of busyness, weeds of laziness, weeds of discontent, unbelief, indifference, obscuring my path?

 

Our lives can become so busy that we neglect to spend much needed time in prayer. Focused prayer. Not just short little ‘help me’ prayers, but ‘get on your knees and beg for God to work’ prayers.

We need to make it a priority to find that special place. That ‘prayer room’ where we can get alone and get serious with God. What a blessing it is to know that we have an audience with the Creator of the universe, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords! At any time, we can come to him in prayer.  

Psalm 34:15 The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.

Psalm 34:17 The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.

Psalm 55:17 Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.

Prayer is one of the simplest and yet the most difficult things to do in our daily Christian walk. I find that even though it is simply talking to God and doesn’t require a lot of physical effort, as concentrated Bible study does, prayer requires us to quiet our minds, still our hearts, and find the quiet needed to really listen to God and commune with him. And often, that is harder than pulling out our pens and notebooks and devotionals.

Making time to tune out the noise of the world, sit in silence, still our hands, bow our heads and worship is not the easiest thing to do, but it is a wonderful privilege we have as Christians and we would do well to practice it, clearing our ‘prayer paths’ and making sure they are well worn and pointing to the Lord.

It’s not always easy in the hustle and bustle of our days, to take time to pray. Breathing a quick few words as we jump out of bed in the morning and before we get back in at night is not going to see our path cleared of grass. No. There has to be more than a sentence or two each day.

If you’ve ever walked through a paddock where cattle are being kept, you’ll see trails of hard packed dirt leading to and from waterholes. These tracks are easily discernible and easily followed because they are clear of grass. The reason for this is they are used daily or many times a day, wearing down and compacting the earth, keeping it free from obstacles.

If we ‘walk’ our prayer path daily, we will see the trail clearly, leading to Jesus. And it will be so clear and free from obstacles that we can skip along it joyfully, singing to the Lord as we go, coming boldly to the throne of grace, bringing our cares to him, not concerned that we will lose our way, because the way is clear.

God is always near, and He always listens. He is there, waiting at the end of our ‘prayer paths’ and in our ‘prayer rooms’, calling us to come and meet with Him and learn from Him. And yet, we push Him aside by being too busy to stop and pray. Our path becomes overgrown, little by little, until one day, we find that we can no longer see the path and we’ve almost forgotten how to pray. What a sorry state of affairs to see our prayer path obscured.

Over the years, I have really struggled to spend considerate amounts of time in prayer. I have had countless prayer journals, notebooks, prayer lists, categorized and organized to help me pray more efficiently and yet I still find it difficult to be still and spend time only in prayer and worship, not reading, not studying, just simply talking to God.

I think it will always be a continual battle to fit longer prayer times into our busy schedules, but it needs to be something we strive to improve.

I long for my prayer path to be clear and free of grass and weeds. I want my prayer life to be so strong and so fruitful that if there was a visual that everyone could see, they wouldn’t have to remind me that there was grass on my path. It would be evident that I have taken time to pray.

I trust that this will help to be a reminder of the need to pray, and pray often.