Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
Colossians 4:2 ESV
One of the spiritual disciplines that has always been so hard for me is the practice of steadfast prayer. It’s just hard being consistent, but also making sure that I have space to pray when my days get busy. If you’re wired anything like me, that is to wake up and go and then go to sleep only after everything is done, you probably have a hard time to find consistency or space to pray like the Apostle Paul recommends here.
Today, I want to share with you three tactics that I’m employing to help me be unwavering in my prayer life.
Set an alarm
You’d be surprised how well you respond to prompts. Especially overt prompts that were set up for you to do something. This is sort of like setting an oven timer. The only difference is when this alarm goes off, you’re baking in time to spend with God in prayer.
Try it once a day to start. The best time to look to set an alarm in your waking hours is when there is a natural lull in your daily routine or schedule (read: right after you eat lunch). If you don’t start in your natural lull, you’ll be hard pressed to find a time for you to set an alarm to pray. Another point you want to consider when starting this out is consistency. Choose a time when you can be consistent. It’s the best way to start making this a pattern in your life.
Find reasons to pray
In this verse, the Apostle Paul says, “to be watchful.” We miss opportunities and reasons to pray because we’re not being watchful. We’re not picking up on the clues, hints, markers, and indicators of God moving in our lives because we’re not paying attention to him. When we start making it a practice to find these indicators and markers in our daily lives, we will find reasons to pray. It just takes practice to observe and process what is going on and relating that to God.
So how can you find reasons to pray more regularly. That’s simple: slow down and take a pause. If you stop running from one thing to another and just enjoy the moment to take a breath, you will find a reason to thank God, or at least argue with him.
Make it enjoyable
This is the hardest part because many of find praying drudgery. Here’s one thing you have to know about prayer: it doesn’t have to be all work and no play. You need to enjoy praying, so make every prayer different or at least change topics if you’re not going to change styles. Be bold in what you say to God. Try praying in different places and spaces. The conversation (prayer) should be engaging, so pay attention to what makes it boring and what makes it fun and begin to enjoy being with God in prayer.
No responses yet