Can Ye Not Watch With Me One Hour?

I was reminded again as I crossed Honey Creek this morning what an amazing artist our God is.  The sunrise was a brilliant display of colors shining through the clouds, reflecting off the water, on an otherwise gray morning.  The beauty of Grand Lake at that early hour has never lost its impact on me.  But this morning, a question crowded its way into my mind.  Is my awe and wonder at the beauty of the sunrise just worship of the Creation rather than the Creator?  Now clearly, the passage in Romans 1 that warns us against this speaks of those who have denied God and turned to perversion and idolatry, but the thought that came to my heart this morning was something different.  If, in the beauty of the sunrise, God is inviting me into an intimate conversation with Him, have I responded as I should?  If God is passionately pursuing an opportunity to show Himself to me, is it not incumbent on me to give Him the time to do it?  I know that I have so structured my time with the Lord, that sometimes I crowd Him out and silence Him by all the things that I try to do in order to hear from Him.  I try to cram my prayer, Bible reading, and journaling into 30 or 45 minutes in the morning and often by the end of that time, my mind has already wandered off to the myriad of tasks that I am going to have to get done today.  I am reminded of the last night that Jesus spent with His disciples before the crucifixion.  He was dealing with the weight of the sins of mankind bearing down on His shoulders.  He welcomed His disciples to join Him in the Garden, but rather than minister to his needs, they kept falling asleep.  His question to them, sometimes haunts me as well, "Could ye not watch with me one hour?" 
I rarely spend an entire hour in prayer and intimate fellowship with Him.  I read the stories of great men of God from centuries past who rose up early and spent several hours on their faces before God before ever starting their day, and I wonder, how did they do it?  I believe that I have found the answer.  They didn't look at prayer like a shopping list, rather they saw it as a conversation.  They recognized that prayer involves several elements, many of which we neglect all together.  We have so compartmentalized our walk with God that we lose sight of the fact that it is all worship and needs to be seen from that perspective.  If we are going to spend sigificant time with the Lord in prayer, then may I suggest a few things that will help. 
Worshipful music to prepare your heart and soul for communion with Him.  In our discussions(battles) over church music in the past few years, I believe that we have lost sight of an important fact, music is a tool that the Holy Spirit uses to open us to His promptings. We should not let it become stale and ritualistic so that it loses its impact on our spirit.  Neither should we allow it to become a performance that becomes the center of attention and takes the focus off of God.  Music that draws us into worship will allow God to direct our prayers rather than having to follow the path that we have chosen for Him.
Read a few Scriptures about praise and thanksgiving and pray them back to God.  Take the time to look up verses that refer to the glory and splendor of our God and the marvelous things that He has done for us.  In the process, seek His face.  Ask God to reveal Himself to you in new and deeper ways.  Don't be satisfied with the snapshots of His glory that You have stored away in the past.  Look for something new and fresh. 
Be sensitive to His conviction of sin that needs to be dealt with in your life.  As we become aware of God's presence and as we see His glory, it will make us more aware of our own sinfulness.  Confession of sin is a vital part of prevailing prayer.  Sin that is harbored in our lives robs us of power and hinders our prayers.  Early on in our times of prayer, God will bring conviction of our sin so that we can deal with it immediately and have victory through His forgiveness.  This is a matter of humbling, a test to see if we will submit our will to His will.  Don't move on in your prayer time until you have dealt with the sin that God is dealing with you about.
Ask God to direct your heart toward the needs of others.  Genuine worship will result in godly love for others.  When we are humbled by God, it seems to put our needs and the needs of those around us into proper perspective.  When we submit to His Spirit, the very first fruit of the Spirit is love.  When we genuinely love others, their burdens become our burdens.  It is only then that we can genuinely pray as fervently for their needs as we do for our own. 
Make a conscious choice to rejoice in the Lord.  Even in the hour of our greatest need, there are things that we can rejoice about.  By exhibiting a joyful spirit, we acknowledge that God is in control and that He holds our future.  Such rejoicing can very easily lead us back into a time of worship as we acknowledge God's exalted place in our lives. 
Pour out your heart to God about your deepest needs and most pressing concerns.  The elements that we have already discussed will help to put these things in perspective.  Never be afraid to tell God what is on your heart.  Christians often bottle up hurt, anger, or frustration, because they think it would be disrespectful, or worse, sinful, to aim these at God.  But God already knows our heart and He wants us to be honest with Him.  If we minimize the pain, deny the anger, or ignore the frustration, we only make the problem worse and we don't give God the opportunity to intervene.  Remember, Jesus said, "Ask."  He has welcomed you into His presence and He wants to hear from you.
Take the time to listen for an answer.  God will speak to your heart if you will listen for His voice. Reserve a portion of your time to listen for God's answer to your prayers.  The Bible tells us to "Be still..."  God will not shout over the noise that we have allowed to crowd our hearts and minds.  He will speak to us in a still small voice and the only way that we will hear it is if we shut out all of the other voices for a while.  This is really the most important part of our prayer time.  It is the part that gives us direction for our next step.  It connects our time of prayer with the rest of our day and sets the tone for how we will approach everything that we will face. 
If we will learn to include these elements in our time with the Lord, it won't be hard to spend significant time with Him.  Our prayer life will cease to be the recitation of a shopping list and will become an active conversation with God that brings us joy and peace and fulfillment.  As a result, we will never have to hear Him say, "Could you not watch with me one hour?"