Prayer - Making it a Meaningful Habit
We don’t have to look very far into the life of Jesus to see that He did a lot of praying. If the Son of God needed to pray and connect with His Heavenly Father, how much more do we! In 1 Thessalonians 5:17, Paul commands us to “Pray continually”. How does that work?
How do we incorporate prayer into our busy lives?
Sometimes we hear about the “saints of old” who would get a up at 4am and pray for hours on end. We think there’s no way we could do that, get discouraged, and throw the whole thing out the window. I used to be more of a morning person than I am now, but even years ago, there was no way I would be able to get up at 4am to pray and actually stay awake!
I read something recently that cast those stories in a new light. Most of those stories took place before electricity so people went to bed when the sun went down! If I went to bed at 6pm, it would be much easier to wake up at 4am! So don’t be intimidated and discouraged.
Why else is prayer hard?
1. We can’t see God, so sometimes it feels like we’re talking to the ceiling.
2. It doesn’t feel like it accomplishes anything.
3. Just like the other spiritual practices, it can easily become rote and meaningless.
4. It’s easy to become distracted by the everyday things of life.
How can we overcome those obstacles?
1. Imagine Jesus sitting in the room with you. He is everywhere, right? That includes your living room, or kitchen table or car. Use your imagination, grounded in God’s Word, to help you visualize Jesus next to you listening. When I pray, I try to remember to take a moment to be still and recognize that God is right here with me. My prayers don’t need to get beyond the ceiling, because God is closer than that.
2. Our feelings aren’t the final deciders of truth. Just because we don’t “feel” like our prayers do much, that doesn’t mean it’s true. There are many Biblical examples of how prayer actually changed God’s mind and His actions! God wouldn’t tell us to do something if there wasn’t a reason. Prayer changes others and it changes us. When I pray for an acquaintance I’m feeling critical of, I grow in compassion for them. If you need reminders of examples of God promising to work as a result of prayer, take a look at Mark 11:24, James 5:16, 1 John 5:14-15, and Luke 18:1-8.
3. There’s a tension in making spiritual practices into habits. The idea of a habit is that we don’t think about it - we just do it. It takes the decision out of it, and therefore requires less brain power and is more likely to get done. Spiritual practices already have the tendency to become rote acts - the ends in and of themselves. Doing that defeats the purpose. Spouting off repeated, memorized prayers that don’t mean anything to you personally doesn’t serve any purpose. It’s an empty religious act.
“And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” Matthew 6:7-8
We need to keep the meaning and purpose in prayer. But if we mix it up to keep it fresh too much, then it’s no longer a habit and we risk forgetting to do it…
One solution is to make the act and timing of prayer a habit, but not the prayer itself. Maybe you pray first thing in morning, or while you’re in the shower, or during the commute to work or while you’re in the school pickup line. Make it a habit to pray at that time. But when you pray, pray about what comes to mind, pray for the people you see or have run into, pray for your kids and spouse.
4. Distraction is really our biggest obstacle to overcome in any kind of spiritual practice. The things of life relentlessly move forward and demand our attention. Our phones beep and buzz and interrupt us constantly. How do we deal with all of that?
I suggest using your phone as your ally instead of your enemy. I’m not sure how practical it is to think that we can beat our culture, but we can use aspects of it to our advantage. If we’re trained to respond to our phones when they beep and buzz, then set alarms on it to remind you to pray! There’s an app called “One Minute Pause” which can be helpful. You can also just set alarms on your phone to go off at whatever intervals you find helpful to remind you to pray.
Another resource that I have found useful and fun is called a “Book of Hours”. I enjoy taking ancient spiritual practices (as long as they’re grounded in God’s Word!) and bringing them forward into our modern culture. A “Book of Hours” was a medieval prayer and devotion book. It was handwritten and beautifully illustrated. It sometimes included Bible verses, prayers and devotions that were meant to be read and prayed at different times of the day.
I first learned about the idea through a novel by T. Davis Bunn called “The Book of Hours”. It’s a fun read if you enjoy fiction. I researched the history of the actual Book of Hours a bit and decided to create my own version. It’s a creative way to pray for different needs throughout the day.
If you would like to create your own “Book of Hours”, I have a free tutorial here.
Prayer is just talking with God, whether you’re worshipping Him for who He is, thanking Him for what He has done or interceding for yourself or others and their needs.
What ways have you found to incorporate prayer into the rhythm of your life?