A 7-Day Guide To PrayerSmakprov

Rethink prayer.

Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God. - Mother Theresa

Many Christ followers struggle to have a decent prayer life. It can be hard for us because it’s easy to focus on the act of praying itself instead of focusing on God. Having an awesome prayer life is not the goal. Connecting with God and growing in our intimacy with Him is.

Maybe this scenario is familiar: We start praying when life is hard. Then life gets easier, and we don’t pray as much because we don’t need God as much. But, something difficult comes across our path and we know we need to pray about it. We feel guilty about it because we haven’t prayed in a while and we assume that God is mad at us. 

It’s time to rethink prayer. 

Let’s think of prayer in light of our closest relationships. It could be a sibling, our spouse, or a best friend. Our communication with them is easy and natural. We might send a text message, make a phone call, or visit with them in person. Sometimes we have long visits and other times, the messages are brief. We usually don’t begin our conversation with this person like this: “Dear Jenny, thank you for answering my call today. I am excited to talk to you. Let’s discuss...” Instead, we have this ongoing conversation that tends to just carry on to the next one. 

If we will treat prayer like we treat that relationship with those closest to us, prayer will intertwine throughout all areas of our lives. It will connect the parts that we have disconnected from God. It will be an ongoing conversation we have with Him—filled with moments of gratitude, praying for others, and even sharing our frustrations. And if this conversation is ongoing, then truly, is there even a need to ever say “amen”?

This doesn’t mean that we don’t show Him the honor He is worthy of. We don’t address Him with, “Hey dude...sup.” No, we live our lives where He is honored and worshiped and in doing so, our encounters with Him are far more genuine. He cares less about our words to Him and more about the place where the words came from.

Our relationship with God will grow as we strive to have an ongoing conversation with Him. Both short and long prayers have their place. But we can’t just expect to get to know him in a five-minute segment each morning. We have to bring Him into our daily lives and allow Him to breathe His peace, hope, comfort, and guidance into every aspect of it.

It’s time to rethink prayer.

Reflect

• Do you tend to pray once or do you talk to God throughout your day?
• What can you begin today to have an ongoing, daily conversation going with God? (Reminders, alarms, praying on the hour?)
• Write down any revelation that God speaks to you through today’s Bible reading or devotional.