Building A Daily Prayer HabitSample

Prayer is being with God. In prayer we worship God and invite him to transform our world by transforming us. With this recalibration of our prayer lives, we lay a strong foundation for a daily prayer habit. But we have further to go.

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When do you pray?

Regularity is essential in forming a discipline. But prayer is not designed to be constrained by a calendar, no matter how frequent. If you’re not praying daily, then you are missing the vital nature of prayer. But if you’re fitting your entire prayer life into a pre-scheduled time slot, you might also still be missing it. 

Scripture is overflowing with examples of spontaneous prayer. As one semi-random example, today you will read Psalm 18. David clearly identifies precisely who God is: a rock, a refuge, a shield, the very source of salvation—not in a vague spiritual sense, but in the sense of being saved from a real life physical threat. Everything in Psalm 18 flows from this: God is my strength and my refuge. It all starts with our relationship with God: who God is for us. 

Because God is David’s refuge, what does David do? He calls upon the Lord. 

Don’t imagine that this is a spiritual statement. David was in trouble, so he yelled for help! The entire Psalm is a celebration of the fact that God heard and acted.

So when should we pray?

Whenever we have a reason to cry out. Whenever we find ourselves lacking. Whenever we recognize our need for God. 

A healthy prayer life inevitably becomes a spontaneous prayer life. Every cry of pain becomes a prayer as we direct our needs towards God. We will never develop this kind of spontaneous prayer life until we come to see God as our rock and refuge. But once we come to understand him in this way, we will find that God is only ever a call away.

Tip for Cultivating a Daily Prayer Habit: In addition to regular reminders to pray for specific needs (I.e., a scheduled prayer list), allow moments of celebration and need to remind you to communicate with God before taking action. When you find yourself praying spontaneously, you’ll know your daily prayer habit is developing.

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