This morning while I was running at the gym I was listening to a podcast that featured Francis Chan. During the podcast the host asked a question that went something like this, “If you were to give any advice to a young leader what would it be?”

Francis then went on to say something that continues to stick with me. He said if I could give them any advice it would be “Pray.” To those of us in ministry that is not all that surprising. It was what he said shortly after that has stuck with me all morning. “I tell my staff if they are not praying for an hour a day about their ministries to let me know and I will hire someone who will.”

That is powerful to me. I often neglect taking the time to literally sit down and pray as God desires us to pray. The question that I am asking myself is how much is God really moving in my ministry since I am not giving him the time to pour into me nor am I listening to him long enough to hear him lead. I am sitting here thinking maybe there are other things in my life that could be going in a different direction if I would just give myself some time to pray.

I am not sure why, but prayer is not my spiritual gift. However, that is not reason to neglect time alone with God in prayer.