Talk to the Lord about whatever you’re doing, whatever you’re struggling with, whatever you need. Prayers like this: “Lord, I’m about to change my baby’s diaper. I want to do this activity with you.” “Father, I don’t know if I have stamina to continue. Still, I trust that you’re with me.” “God, I need you to provide in [this particular] area. I don’t know how I can make it without your provision. I bring this need to you.” Hundreds of times a day….

What should you do when there is no time to pray? On the surface, this appears to be a simple question, but it turns out to be a bit more complicated in practice. Here are four perspectives that may help.

First, we need to call out the uncomfortable truth that most people who claim to be too busy to pray actually have plenty of time for prayer. But to receive this uncomfortable call-out, we first need to shine a spotlight on our screen-time addictions and entertainment idolatry. Simply stated: for most of us, all we must do is reduce the amount of time we spend scrolling through social media, texting friends, gaming, or binge-watching television to find time for prayer. That’s it. Still, many of us feel that we have the right to a certain amount of entertainment or “vegging out” each day. Granted, you should aim for an appropriate amount of rest in your life (perhaps one part in seven?). But since studies have shown that screen-centered recreational activities are less emotionally rejuvenating than a stroll in the park, reading a book, or hanging out with a friend), then a slavish commitment to some vegging time each day would seem to be more of an idolatrous commitment to self-soothing than to appropriate rest. So for most of us the answer to the question of what to do when we don’t have time to pray is to reduce some of our non-necessary screen time and allot a portion of it to prayer.

A second perspective for those who are truly busy—and who can’t do much to change their busy-ness (and some people fall into this category)—is to remember that communion with the God who made you for relationship with himself is so valuable that you will still need to carve out time to pray, regardless of how hard it might be to do so. This might entail sleeping a bit less at night because you peel off some time from the front or back end of your regular sleep schedule. Prayer is important enough that this could be an appropriate action.

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