Making A Habit Of Prayer

As Christian Believers, we know, without any reservation, the power of prayer. Yet, despite the best of intentions, our prayer life can waver over time. Here are 9 tips to help make prayer a habit. Or to strengthen an existing prayer habit.

1. Recognize Your Need For Him: If we think we can do our daily lives just fine without Him, we will only call out to Him for the really tough stuff. When we start to see how desperately dependent we are on Him for every little aspect of life, we start talking. You will find yourself praying for strength to get through a meeting or just through the morning before nap time.
2. Don’t Be Afraid Of Creating A Habit. Legalism is an easy trap to fall in to. And because we know that, we try to steer clear of getting too legalistic about anything. But creating a habit of prayer is a good thing. It’s obviously important that we don’t just go through the legalistic motions to check it off a list, but if you are praying sincerely don’t be afraid of the routine of prayer.
3. Make A Divine Appointment (aka a First-Fruits Qadash – see here). If we start our day with Jesus, we are more likely to continue our day with Him. How do we think that we could fit Him in later if we can’t get quiet with God before our kids get up, our phone starts dinging, our clients start emailing, or our boss starts calling?
4. Build Prayer Into Everyday Mindless Tasks. Think about the things you do that don’t require your brain and just require your hands or feet, like folding laundry, cooking dinner, mowing the grass. Be on the lookout for all the tasks you do each day that aren’t so mental. You might be surprised to see how many opportunities you have to start a conversation with God.
5. Pray With Someone On A Regular Basis. Whether it’s a spouse or a friend, every day or even weekly, set something up now with someone else. We shouldn’t rely solely on this time for our prayer life, but it will help create some consistency and accountability.
6. Just Do It. Instead of saying you need to pray, just start praying. Avoid just thinking about prayer without actually praying. If someone emails you and mentions a need, just pray for them in the email.
7. Make A Commitment. If we don’t commit to it, it’s simply not going to just happen. The urgent will take over if we aren’t really committed to making this happen. So make a plan for one month. Set the alarm on your phone for 5, 10 or 15 minutes, pray and don’t let anything interrupt until the alarm goes off. Remembering all God has done is helpful motivation to keep praying.
8. Write Down Answered Prayers In Your Journal. When we see God really working as we pray, it’s easy to keep praying. At other times we need to be reminded that our prayers are answered and do a make a difference.
9. Remember: The More You Pray, The More You Want To Pray. It’s easy to get sidetracked by busy schedules, but when you finally slow down to pray, you’ll kick yourself for not returning to a prayer routine sooner because it’s just so, so good.
   Adapted from an article by Valerie Woerner, founder of the Val Marie Paper