Praying Must Be Learned
Keep these 3 prayer helpers in your toolkit
The activity of praying is common, but it is not natural to us. It's not like eating, breathing or sleeping - it is activity that must be learned, and practiced.
Have you ever tried to take on a new task without any guidelines or instructions? Remember when you learned to ride a bicycle, or drive a car, or run the computer program at work? It felt awkward at first, didn’t it? Especially if you didn’t have a guide or manual.
When you start working out at a gym, it’s daunting, all those machines! Meeting with a workout coach is a great benefit to learn to use them correctly so you get the most benefit from it. Whenever we learn a new task or activity, it helps to have instructions or an outline or key steps to get us started.
We have some recommendations for praying people. Having these three prayer helps should make it easier to get started and stick to it:
Have a time for prayer - make it a part of your schedule. We all have routine, for getting going in the morning, to paying our bills. Putting it on a schedule will not leave it to chance that we'll pray if we get time. We must make time. Plan on getting up earlier, or staying up later; spend some of your lunch hour, cut out some evening television (!) or other hobby.
Have a place - make a certain location designated for prayer. Be it a particular room, under a tree in the park, or specific a chair at home, have a place where you can frequent at your designated time. We go into our closet (room) for silence and solitude, for seeking our Father in heaven. Most days there are plenty of unused rooms at your church building, consider gathering there with two or three.
Have an agenda - a list, if you will, or a plan. Having an agenda gives you a place to start, a purpose you are after for when and where you pray. Leaving it to pray as you feel like it will most often mean you pray randomly and rambling. You wouldn't go to your employer or a client and ramble on - so when you approach our Father, don't babble. (See some of our prayers lists)
These three tools are crucial to a consistent time of fervent prayer and intercession. If we wait until we feel like praying, or just when we have an urgent need—and don't know what we are praying, our prayer life will grow stale.
It's much like starting an exercise routine: Set a time, go to a place and have a plan.
But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who [is] in the secret [place]; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. 1
In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. 2
Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. 3
And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer...4
Pray For The People Of God From The Word Of God
Here are three passages we are praying from this week (one passage per day):
Monday - Luke 17:5 (Faith)
Tuesday - Romans 15:13 (Hope)
Wednesday - John 17:26 (Love)
Will you join me in praying these verses, and ask one person to join you?
Until Thursday, grace and peace…
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
Mat 6:6 NKJV
Luke 6:12 ESV
Act 3:1 ESV
Act 16:13 ESV