Being Challenge Kids: An 11-Day Challenge to Be Like JesusSample

Habit 3: Jesus Pauses to Pray

The famous Underground Railroad leader, Harriet Tubman, prayed all the time by connecting her prayers to what she was doing. When she was cleaning something, she asked Jesus to cleanse her heart. She asked the Lord to sweep the sins from her life when she swept.

Harriet Tubman made prayer a habit by connecting it with her work. That way, she was talking to God without even thinking about it.

We practice our habits regularly, often without thinking, such as flossing our teeth or exercising. Habits allow our brain to focus on learning new things. As a result, the brain doesn’t have to think about our old habits. Habits free up our minds to concentrate on new things.

For example, when you were one year old and learning to walk, you spent a lot of time working on it. You had to practice your balance, moving one foot forward and then the other. You had to watch closely where you were going, noticing when the floor changed from carpet to tile. You also had to think about how far you were from your destination and how easy it would be to reach it.

Today, you likely don’t have to think about walking at all unless you’re trying to learn something new, like walking a tightrope or a balance beam. You can even do other things while walking, like eat an ice cream cone.

You have hundreds of habits that you perform every day. So did Jesus. But He had one habit that He did first thing in the morning. He prayed.

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” Mark 1:35

Praying is simply talking to God. Jesus prayed first thing in the morning. By pausing for prayer right away in the morning, Jesus showed people that prayer was important. It was so important that He did it before anything else in His day.

Also, note that Jesus didn’t pray just once and then went on with His day. He paused to pray ALL THE TIME. We could learn a lot from His prayer habits.

Challenge: One way to practice prayer is to say the prayers of those who have come before us. Amazingly, many of the Psalms are prayers, including Psalm 23. Read through Psalm 23 today. Stop after each verse and talk to God about that verse as you are reading.