Prayer (noun): communion of the soul with God.
Little prayer, little power. Much prayer much power.
Daniel 6:10 tells us that Daniel prayed 3 times a day “as was his custom.” In other words, he was in the habit of having “communion of the soul with God.” As followers of Jesus, this sounds like something we should greatly desire. Unfortunately, prayer becomes a last resort when we’re in trouble, instead of our primary tool for living by faith.
3 rules for having your own habitual communion of the soul with God…
- Set a regular time. There is a lot of merit to praying first thing in the morning everyday. The Bible certainly advocates it. Can you think of a better way to begin your day? Imagine if everyday, before your boss was breathing down your neck, bills needed to be paid, and children began screaming, you made time for your soul to commune with God. But if you just can not pray in the morning, anytime is better than no time.
- Protect your time. It is easy to get distracted! Protect your time by refusing to allow other good things get in the way. We don’t normally miss our prayer time because we were too busy robbing a 7-11 to pray for a few minutes. Usually, it’s other important – but less important – stuff that deviates us from our time of communion with God. Plan ahead and protect your time.
- Have a plan. I’m a little torn on this point. On one hand, familiarity breeds contempt. But on the other hand, there is something very powerful about having a consistent routine. While my prayer routine is the same almost every time, the words that I pray are nearly never exactly the same. My prayers usually flow like this:
- Praising God for who He is and all that He’s done.
- Repent of any sin in my life and claim the promise of forgiveness in Jesus.
- Call upon God’s promises according to His Word. (“God has not given us the spirit of fear…” ” I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he grows old, he will not depart from it.” “There is now therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” “He who began a good work in you, will perform it til the day that Christ returns.”)
- My character and integrity with God.
- Family.
- The Church (Not just The Awakening, or Edgewood).
- Specific people.
- Thank God in advance for how He will work.
If you’re struggling to build a consistent prayer life as a spiritual habit, doing these things could help you get out of a spiritual funk, and into sommunion with God.
Blessings!
John