Prayer ... the least or the most?

Every pastor I know emphasizes the importance of prayer. Prayer is your communication with God, they say.

The closeness in every relationship is defined by communication. A date between a man and a woman would not happen without someone communicating their request. You cannot have a relationship without communication.

The same is true with God.

Prayer should be the first thing I do in every situation. When I arise in the morning, before I walk out the door, when I run into a problem at work, if I can't get the tone of a letter right, before I leave work, when I get home ... every moment, I should be involving my Lord.

How many times, I think to myself, have I done everything I could possibly think to do. Except pray.

Tonight, I was reading Beverly Lewis' book, October Song. The characters in the book, Katie and Dan, have been shunned from communicating with their families by the Old Order Amish community because they believe in the grace of what Jesus' death brought to them. The Old Order Amish believe there is no assurance of salvation until judgment day (i.e., must earn salvation) and any talk of such thing is considered flagrant pride ... another sin. Katie and Dan pray every day for the salvation of their parents. The resulting realization from Katie went as follows:

"The least they could do was in effect the most they could do, believing in the power of prayer."

To that I say, "Amen."