What if we aren’t praying? What if we just can’t seem to do it? Is it possible to go from zero prayer to daily prayer? The answer to that question lies in our desire. Ultimately, it is a change in motivation first and technique a distant second.
Step One
Get rid of other Gods. What is standing between us and daily communion with the triune God of the Bible is another god. This other god could be something trivial or large. But something else is more important. Lip service is easy to give while time isn’t. We give our time to what we truly value.
Step Two
Ask for the help of the Holy Spirit? We woefully overestimate our own abilities to self-help ourselves and change. We need to ask God for this help. And he says he will send help, and that helper is the Holy Spirit.
Step Three
No more amateur hour. Christianity has never worked well as a half-hearted endeavor. It is an all or nothing thing. God says he spits out the lukewarm of us. Approach God with the serious attention as you would to the most important job or task.
Step Four
Make a leap into reality. We tend to take two wrong forks in the road when it comes to prayer. We tend to make prayer a fluffy extra because we deeply doubt the power of God. Or because of pride, we tend to save it for last ditch effort when nothing else has worked. We fall on either end of the spectrum because we are suspicious in some degree its effectiveness.
Step Five
Learn something about God. Some of us pray to God having no idea who God is. Go over what the Bible tells us who God is and the guideline for prayer shown to us by Jesus in the sermon on the mount in Matthew 6:9-13.
Step Six
Have a plan and keep it simple. Pick a time you like and intentionally pray at that time each day if possible. Mark it on the daily schedule. First thing in the morning works best for most people but not all. Have some sort of pre-designed idea of things to pray about. Here are three basic steps.
1) Have a list. Here is one unique idea to do that.
2) Have a journal. Write down at the top of your journal each day. In that journal write down at the top of the page each day.
3) Have prayer cards that you can take with you and when you have a spare moment go over them.
Prayer is much more than a step by step process. It is an intimate relationship with great tenderness and nuance. But any desire to pray more, any book on the subject, will include these type of basic elements. Techniques only matter in that they give structure and outline to our intentions. Can a little over 600 words change your life and open the door to a universe of the infinity and glory of communing with God? Yes, they can. If you desire to know and communicate with God, nothing can stop you.
The words of British poet Robert Abrahams say it well, “For some men die by shrapnel, And some go down in flames, But most men perish inch by inch, In play at little games.” Our goal is to identify the little games and put a stop to them and put the right weight on the right things.
The words of British poet Robert Abrahams say it well, “For some men die by shrapnel, And some go down in flames, But most men perish inch by inch, In play at little games.” Our goal is to identify the little games and put a stop to them and put the right weight on the right things.
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