The Practical Disciple

Photo by Ruth Arnold

Any prayer discipline can be improved just by applying a few prayer tips.

1)  Schedule your prayer time. You can prayer at anytime and all the time, but have you set aside a time just to be with God?  We make time for what is important and having a daily time just for God improves your consistency.

2)  Pray outloud. I use to like to pray on long drives.  Unfortunately, I found that my mind frequently wandered, until I started praying out loud.  I am sure some passing motorist thought I was crazy talking to myself because this pre-dated handsfree cell phone devices.  Neverthess, I found that I could sustain my attention if I would just pray outload.

3) Pray on paper. Writing your prayers out will physically engage you in prayer like praying outloud.  Journaling your prayers not only will help you maintain focus, but I find that the process of writing is very clarifying. If you are not sure where to start on writing prayers, try just writing a letter to God.  ”Dear God, ….”

4) Use a devotional guide. Using a prayer guide will prompt you to pray for things you normally wouldn’t.  One my favorites is a little book called a A Diary of Private Prayer by John Baillie.  It’s an inexpensive paperback that provides morning and evening prayers for a month along with blank pages to write your own prayers.  While the language is a bit dated the spirit of the writing is so amazingly fresh.

5) Pray with someone. Particularly, having a small prayer group can be a very powerful experience.  Be sure that you spend the bulk of your time actually in prayer.  I have been in prayer groups that rapidly became discussion groups about prayer and then spent only a few minutes actually praying. Some groups passively resist moving into prayer by spending a long time gather prayer requests from one another.

6) Keep a prayer list. Do you ever tell someone you are going to pray for them and then forget about it until you see them again?  You had all the greatest intentions in the world, but just forgot. Keeping a prayer list can help prevent this from happening.  A prayer list also prompts you to watch for how God is responding.  It hones your spiritual awareness.

7) Be sure to listen.  Have you ever been in a one-sided conversation with someone who can’t shut-up?  Make sure that you aren’t being that person with God.  Learn to take time in your prayers to be still and listen.  If your not sure what that might look like read the post, Do we really expect God to answer?.

You don’t need to do all of these at once.  Pick one or two prayer tips and periodically mix up your prayer life in order to keep your awareness high.  The key is to stay very intentional in your prayer life so you don’t fall into a rut.  In fact, take that as a bonus tip…

Mix it Up.

My prayer for you is that you experience ever deepening conversations with God. Blessings from The Practical Disciple

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