One of the resources Pastor Ken suggested in his blog titled “Don’t Waste Your Pandemic!” is a book titled “A Praying Life” by Paul Miller. The purpose of the book is to help readers cultivate a vibrant prayer life. I highly commend this resource to you.
I found this quote from Miller extremely challenging and convicting:
“If you are not praying, then you are quietly confident that time, money, and talent are all you need in life. You’ll always be a little too tired, a little too busy. But if, like Jesus, you realize you can’t do life on your own, then no matter how busy, no matter how tired you are, you will find time to pray” (Miller, 49).
Wow, how convicting is that! Prayer shows that we are creatures in desperate need of divine help from our Creator. Even Jesus, the Son of God, was continually dependent upon the Father in prayer. Jesus was constantly bombarded by people that wanted to hear His teachings, be healed by Him, and to have demons cast out by Him. Yet, amid busyness and tiredness, Jesus humbly depended upon His Father by communing with Him in prayer.
Miller provides seven suggestions for how one can spend time in prayer in the morning (Miller, 50-51):
Get to bed. If you want to pray in the morning, then plan your evening so you don’t stay up too late. The evening and the morning are connected.
Get up. Praying in bed is wonderful. In fact, the more you pray out of bed, the more you’ll pray in bed. But you’ll never develop a morning prayer time in bed.
Get awake. Maybe you need to make a pot of coffee first or take a shower.
Get a quiet place. Maybe a room, a chair, or a place with a view. Or maybe you do better going for a walk. Make sure that no one can interrupt you.
Get comfortable. Don’t feel like you have to pray on your knees. For years I was hindered from praying because I found it so uncomfortable to pray on my knees.
Get going. Start with just five minutes. Start with a small goal that you can attain rather than something heroic. You’ll quickly find that the time will fly.
Keep going. Consistency is more important than length. If you pray five minutes every day, then the length of time will slowly grow. You’ll look up and discover that twenty minutes have gone by. You’ll enjoy being with God. Jesus is so concerned about hanging in there with prayer that he tells “his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up” (Luke 18:1).
Questions to Consider:
If Jesus, the Son of God, was dependent on the Father in prayer, how much more should we depend on Him in prayer? Consider reading one of the gospels and focus on Jesus’ prayer life.
Are you “too busy” or “too tired” to pray?
How can you implement Miller’s seven suggestions to your prayer life?
Written by Jonathan Mitchell