Why wouldn't you pray?

Been trying to ask myself this question every minute of every day. "Why wouldn't I pray?" But really... what is it that keeps us from not praying ALWAYS, and ALL THE TIME, for EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE! Why wouldn't I pray before everything that I do? Why wouldn't I pray before my waking, before my sleeping, before my talking, before my eating, before my reading, before my writing, before sending a text message, before my driving, before my running, before everything! Then I could KNOW that the Lord has gone before me in all things, and trust that He is working in ways that I may never fully know or see. There really is no reason not to.

But then also, why wouldn't I pray after everything? Why wouldn't I thank God for every single blessing that he has given me, on top of His gift of grace? "What if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday?" I taped to quote to my barn door headboard as a awesome and convicting reminder to send letters to Jesus of my thankfulness for everything he has so mercifully given me.

I pray that your spirit would intercede for me when I do not know what to pray for (Romans 8:26), but that I would simply be faithful to pray (Romans 12:12) I want to pray for the first person who comes to my mind in the morning, I want to pray for whoever is on my heart as I got to sleep, I want to pray for whoever I am talking to (even while I am talking to them!), I want to pray with whoever I share a meal with, I want to pray for the car in front of me on the road and the person at the cross walk, I want to pray for the people I always see on my runs and the ones who whistle at me when they drive by, I want to pray for the guy who fills my tank with gas and the lady at the Safeway checkout, I want to pray for my neighbor walking their dog by my house every evening, and the kids who have the lemonade stand down the street. I want my heart to be ALWAYS willing to pray MORE.

My pastor at my church in Corvallis once said, the true test of your love for someone is if you pray for them. Seems obvious that we would pray for the people that we love, but I think as the Lord has grown my love for Him, He has grown my love for His people, and so the people that I long to pray is rapidly multiplying. Sometimes my heart is overwhelmed by the amount of people that I desire to pray for, but I know that I am ALWAYS capable of loving MORE and praying faithfully, as long as I rely on His love which fills me and fuels me with "immeasurably MORE than I could ask or imagine." (Ephesians 3:20)