Cultivating a Habit of Prayer – Everything I’ve Learned So Far
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What Is Prayer?
Put simply, prayer is communication with God. Usually, it’s talking to God, but it can also involve sitting quietly and listening for His voice or reflecting and meditating on scripture.
In the Bible, we are told prayer is the natural, normal way to speak to God. Few people have spoken to Him face to face. When He was on earth, even Jesus prayed to his heavenly father, a fact that always blows my mind! Jesus also taught his disciples how to pray using The Lord’s Prayer.
What Should I Pray About?
I’ll be honest, I don’t enjoy praying very much, and there are only a few ways I feel comfortable doing so. I often struggle to know what to pray about. This may be a lack of faith or closeness to God on my part, but I suspect it’s actually a pretty common experience. The Bible tells us to bring everything to God in prayer. While it’s a huge comfort to know He’s interested, involved and able to work in all things, it can also be overwhelming.
I’ve found the best way to combat this is to write my prayers down in a prayer journal. Sometimes I write actual prayers, pouring my heart out like a letter to a friend. At other times, I jot down bullet points, scripture verses, or names of people I’ve committed to pray for. There’s no wrong way to do it.
Prayer journaling helps me slow down and think about what I want to say next. It also means I can re-read and look back on what I’ve written. Looking back on prayer journals from years past is both fascinating and humbling. I can see my immaturity, but also God’s goodness and faithfulness in answering some of my boldest prayers, as well as His wisdom in saying ‘no’ to others. He had much better plans for me.
Read A Beginner’s Guide to Prayer Journaling to learn more.
My Tips for Cultivating a Habit of Prayer
I’ve had to work hard to cultivate a habit of prayer. Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way…
Keep a Prayer List
Alongside prayer journaling, I keep a prayer list that I update whenever someone mentions something they’re struggling with or hoping for. I assure them I’ll be praying for them or about the situation. This helps me keep my word and remember my promise. It also keeps them top of mind so I can ask them for updates.
Pray with Others
I meet with a home group regularly, and we often share prayer requests with one another. Being in a small group with people I know and trust makes it easier for me to pray out loud.
Challenge Yourself
Recently, our church has had a renewed focus on prayer, encouraging members to attend at least one communal prayer meeting a month. I am not a morning person, but I’ve chosen to go to the 6am prayer meeting that’s held once a month.
My brain seems to enjoy the novelty of this approach. I think it feels a bit illegal to head out of the house before anyone else is stirring. Walking to church with barely a car on the road also makes it exciting – like I’m part of the persecuted church and have to meet under the cover of darkness! Obviously, I’m not, but I do enjoy starting my day this way.
To step out of my comfort zone, I’m also challenging myself to pray out loud at least once during the 45-minute session. It might have something to do with turning 40, but it seems to be a feature in my life this year – doing things that are out of character and growing to enjoy them.
Revisit The Lord’s Prayer
This past term, we completed a study on The Lord’s Prayer by Tim Chester. While there hasn’t been much that was completely new to me, it’s been good to revisit such a familiar passage and talk about it with others.
I once rewrote The Lord’s Prayer in my own words, for our own time and circumstances. It forced me to think about the words and their meaning and the big idea behind each line. I found it very beneficial and it’s something I’d recommend doing.
Let Go of Prayer Perfectionism
There were times growing up when I felt like prayer had to be polished and perfect. I thought we had to pray big prayers. I also lacked confidence because I felt like I didn’t know enough about God and the Bible. I was worried I might say something stupid or wrong.
But we don’t have to pray big prayers, with lofty words or tricky theological points. God wants to hear our hearts and delights to hear his children speak to him. Becoming a parent has helped me understand this. My children may talk gibberish or come to me with flawed thinking, but I still want to hear them, have conversations with them, and spend time with them.
With age, I’ve finally reached a point where I don’t really care what people think of me, so I feel a little freer to just pray, with my pauses and silences, ums and ahs. I’ve also come to the realisation that I love listening to other people’s prayers, no matter how they pray. Hearing others pour their hearts out only draws me closer to them in fellowship and love, so I may as well join in. They want to hear my prayers too, no matter how disjointed.
Remember God Knows Best
Prayer is rarely about changing circumstances, but about changing ourselves. Inevitably, when you spend time with God, you will change. But there’s nothing that says, ‘the more people pray something, the more likely God is to heal or act’. That would be manipulative of us towards a God who knows best.
Yes, God does use our prayers to intervene, but He mostly uses them to draw us closer to Himself, giving us an opportunity to see his power, glory and kindness when He chooses to act in response to our prayers for healing or mercy. Prayer is a way to show our dependence on God, and to present situations to him with hearts wide open and willing to let Him do what He knows is best.
Thanks For Stopping By
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