Arriving in Istanbul today, I couldn’t help thinking of Jay Chou’s song “Istanbul.” But the city also brought something else to mind: prayer.
There are mosques everywhere in Istanbul. Walk a short distance and you often come across another one. Several times a day, the adhan—the Islamic call to prayer—rings out from the mosques.
It reminded me of my travels in Israel, where I often heard the call to prayer too. In some places there, I remember hearing it even more frequently.
Muslims observe five daily prayers: at dawn, after midday, in the afternoon, after sunset, and at night. The times shift with the position of the sun.
I wondered why so few people on the streets seemed to stop and pray when the call sounded. I later learned that the call announces the beginning of a prayer period; it doesn’t mean everyone must pray on the spot. People may pray within the appointed time at a mosque, at home, or somewhere else suitable.
What stayed with me wasn’t a question about whether Muslims were following their religious obligations. It was a question about myself: could I use more reminders to pray?
We Need Reminders
Regular prayer is also part of traditional Jewish practice. Orthodox Judaism generally has three daily prayer services: morning, afternoon, and evening. The idea of praying at set times is familiar from the Bible as well.
Even when the king prohibited prayer, Daniel continued his usual practice of kneeling to pray three times a day (Daniel 6:10). Peter and John went up to the temple at the hour of prayer (Acts 3:1).
Neither passage requires every Christian to pray three times a day, and Christians do not need to adopt the Islamic pattern of five daily prayers. Still, these traditions made me notice something: even when we know prayer matters, a regular time or habit can help us remember to do it.
It’s easy to assume that if something matters to us, we’ll naturally remember it. Life doesn’t always work that way.
Our Phones Remind Us All Day Long
Think of all the notifications we receive. YouTube tells us there’s a new video. Netflix recommends a new show. Instagram alerts us to updates, stories, and even likes on our posts.
Sometimes one notification is enough to make us pick up our phones. We mean to take a quick look, but ten or twenty minutes—or more—slip by. I’m not saying that watching videos or scrolling through social media is necessarily wrong.
But it occurred to me: if we allow our phones to keep reminding us to watch videos, check other people’s updates, or see who liked our posts, why not choose to set a reminder to pray?
We already set alarms to wake up, calendar alerts for meetings, and reminders to take medication, exercise, or deal with important tasks.
Prayer Doesn’t Always Mean Stopping Everything
Paul writes, “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Surely he doesn’t mean that Christians must spend twenty-four hours a day kneeling with their eyes closed, unable to work, eat, or sleep.
I think of Nehemiah. He was serving as cupbearer to the Persian king when Artaxerxes asked him what he wanted. Nehemiah tells us that he prayed to the God of heaven before answering the king (Nehemiah 2:4–5).
He was at work, in the middle of an important conversation. The text doesn’t describe him leaving the room or performing a formal prayer ritual. It was probably a brief prayer offered in the moment.
Yet Nehemiah didn’t pray only in emergencies. In the first chapter, he mourned, fasted, and prayed over Jerusalem’s situation. Setting aside time to pray and turning to God throughout the day are not competing practices.
We can pray quietly in the morning. We can also pray briefly while working, walking, facing a difficulty, or making a decision. Prayer doesn’t always have to be long, or wait until we find a completely uninterrupted stretch of time.
A Reminder Is Not Legalism
I don’t think Christians must pray three or five times a day, and I have no desire to introduce another set of prayer rules. If we begin measuring our spirituality—or judging other Christians—by the number of times we pray, we may lose sight of what prayer is for.
But fear of legalism need not stop us from developing helpful habits. Choosing a habit freely is different from making it a condition of God’s acceptance.
Perhaps we could set one or two reminders on our phones, or pause to pray at certain moments each day. Like Nehemiah, we can also offer a short prayer in the middle of work or before a decision.
Hearing the call to prayer in Istanbul hasn’t persuaded me that Christians need their own version of the adhan. It has simply reminded me how many things compete for my attention every day. Why not make a little room for prayer? Not because I have a daily quota to meet, but because I want to remember to turn to God even when life is busy.