When you can pray more, you become eligible to work less and stress less. Look at this verse, Matthew 6:6 (NKJV) “But you, when you pray, go into your room/closet, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who [is] in the secret [place;] and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”
Praying is spiritual work, and it’s a labor every believer in Christ should give themselves to more. It means you have an inside job. It means that whatever you need done in your life, you should labor over it in prayer. Believers work so hard trying to push their agendas and make things happen, when all they really need to do is pray in the closet and invite God to do it.
A few things can happen when you pray this way. First, God can answer your petition just as you have asked. He can also test you to see if you really want what you are petitioning Him for. God wants you to see that the major part of our spiritual work is done alone with God in the closet or quiet place in prayer. God sees you when you go to your closet for prayer. God can also lift a burden off of you when you pray. You can’t change someone’s heart, but God can, and He hears our petition. You can’t make a schedule come together or a meeting take place or two friends who are at odds with each other come to reconcile, but God can. Prayer to God is a labor of love to see God’s will be done.
Sometimes it’s a labor just to get to the prayer closet, but once you’ve seen God move on your petition and bring the answers that glorify Him, you start signing up for more shifts. The next time you go to your prayer closet to pray, tell God that you would like to do all your labor there, and watch Him work. That’s how the Believer’s life was meant to be. Labor in prayer over your family and over your lost friend. Labor in prayer for your community and your church. Labor in prayer to the point that you enjoy the work, because God meets you there and God works there.