The Habit of Prayer
Disclaimer..My prayer life sucks!
What's always funny to me is when I was in the world, partying all night, coming home drunk...I prayed religiously! As soon as I got baptized, that prayer life or whatever you may have called it, took a back seat.
It'a not that I don't pray, I do. But the connection sometimes seems lost for me with the Big Guy upstairs. As compared to when, it alwys came from the heart. I think that's what God really wants too, it's not some 'mechanical' speech we send to Him every night before we go to bed, it has to be from the heart.
So over the past year, I've been reading a lot about the science of prayer. Or maybe a better way to put it, the theological essence of prayer. And one of the books I really enjoyed this past year was 'Why We Pray' by John Peckham...
I'm a big fan of John's work. His book 'God With Us' was one of the best theological books I've ever read in my life so when this thing came out this year, I grabbed a copy and dove in.
And even though I'd love to talk more about the book, the point of this blog post is to take what I've learned from reading this book and actually a biblical example of how we should pray...
It's found in one of my favourite books of the bible - Daniel.
Three times a day....
I mean, this is the minimum I would think but sadly....Yours truly didn't even follow this bare minimum. So I decided it was time to get a bit more serious about this prayer life of mine or lack thereof...
So I let the bible be my teacher when I started poking around about this minimum and found some times that scripture suggests.
Evening.
Morning.
Noon.
But I still needed to hold myself accountable and actually commit to this. So thanks to my really good friends at Apple, I started using my alarm clock in my phone :)
Crazy simple way to remind myself to pray at specific times each day. This allows me to put God first and the alarm going off helps me put things aside and focus on my prayer life with Him.
Yeah I know, there are fancier apps on the phone for prayer and all, but this is what I'm going to try for now. Habit forming is something I think is so important in anything you try to build into your life, so why not with prayer?
I also tried to incorporate some scripture after my prayer and today I read Psalms 7 simply because....It was the 7th day of the month lol Each time I prayed today, I ended it with some bible reading of that Psalm.
All in all, today was great! My wife even started to try this method as well and she told me it really helped her prioritize God. Now obviously both of us just started this little strategy today and if we follow through, it's all for not. But this just makes sense to me....
Thinking back about when I did have a 'prayer life', it always came from a need for God. Even if I wasn't in the church, I knew I needed God. And I am not sure why this changed over the past few years, but I'm going to change it :)
Hope this strategy can work for someone looking to deepen their relationship with God.
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Perhaps this falls along the lines of the parable of the lost sheep (Luke 15:3-7 and Matthew 18:12-14). The Holy Spirit comes searching for you when you are lost.
From another perspective, (Luke 5:31-32)
That's not to imply that you are saved. But perhaps you are not so lost that He needs to come looking for you. And perhaps He is giving you the space to choose to come to Him out of your own free will rather than out of desperation.
And that brings me to the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), in which the son chooses to come back to his father (unlike the sheep who must be found). Because it is the son's choice, there is much rejoicing.
And so, at different stages of your life, perhaps there are different ways in which the Holy Spirit makes His grace available to you, either a lifeline or by personal choice.
That's a very good point. I think the Holy Spirit convicts us, and makes us feel uncomfortable when we dont pray. It's His way of tapping on our shoulders
So you will read the Bible three times in a day?
As much as I can, as often as I can :)
In these times it is advisable to pray a lot.
Amen!
Definitely prayers should come from the heart. It simply means nothing to say stuff without meaning it or letting it come from deep inside. Even us humans care about genuine stuff being done towards us
Absolutely! I dont think it needs to be mechanical either, has to be genuine from the heart
yes very right Mr Jongo
A lot of people pray without trusting in God
Most people are always being dicey when it comes to praying and that’s why so many prayers don’t get answered
Gotta have both, trust and a strong prayer life
Funny enough this happens to me too and I feel the prayer is not even crossing the roof and sometimes am like God, are you there..hahaha but he’s always there
I had to use my alarms too to put a little discipline on this souls to praying
It's been working very good for me so far, then again i'm only into this for 3 days now lol
Will you believe that there are some people who do not pray?
I wonder how some people live and survive without prayer
It’s crazy out there…
Yeah I'm slowly learning that lesson....Without it, faith is pointless
Jehová es mi pastor , felicidades amigo interesante contenido..
I love the honesty in your posts. This has blessed me. And I'm glad you and your wife are in this together. Nothing beats a home United for God.
The HEARTFELT CONTINUOUS prayer of the righteous makes tremendous power available (James 5:16 AMP). The connection is what really matters.
At the end of the day, we're all trying to figure it out- our walk with God. Learning day by day, one step at a time, getting to know Him better.
Thanks for sharing 🙏