January 8, 2018
Greetings in Jesus Christ,
Let me ask you a question: “Are you too busy to pray?”
More recently, I was talking to a busy college student who shared that he’s struggling with not having much of a prayer life because he has been working a job, going to school, and trying to have a social life. Other folks in Orange County have to commute long hours on the 91 freeway, 5 freeway, or 405 freeway and this can take away 1-2 or more hours per day. Mothers and fathers of young children are often so exhausted by the time they could sit down to pray— that they fall asleep! I’ve fallen asleep during prayer time when my kids were younger. And there is an increasing number of people who are facing significant illness or they are caring for someone who is seriously ill.
These, in my opinion, are understandable, and even noble, reasons why some people have a hard time with developing a daily practice of concentrated prayer. It’s easy to condemn oneself for not having the time for this important practice in our lives. What if we take away condemnation and any kind of weird guilt trip, what is left? Can we form a practice of prayer for those challenging phases of our lives?
Here are some ideas that have helped me and folks I’ve known:
The Lord’s Prayer is our basic form of prayer, and it covers everything. Worship, praise, thanksgiving, intercession, confession, reconciliation, requests, and doxology. Start each day by saying the Lord ’s Prayer. Say the names out loud of the people you are praying for. Speak your out louds outloud.
Pray over each meal. In fact, you can use the Common Table Prayer: “Come, Lord Jesus, be our Guest, and let Thy/these gifts to us be blessed. Amen.”
At the end of the day, before bed, kneel and say Luther’s Evening Prayer:
I thank You, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have graciously kept me this day; and I pray that You would forgive me all my sins where I have done wrong, and graciously keep me this night. For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.
The last couple of weeks, a few people have mentioned to me that they have prayer partners they call. You can call someone on a commute, or for 5 or 10 minutes a day, and simply pray together.
Also many have found the blessing of the Jesus Prayer, which is prayed throughout the day. The prayer goes like this, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me, a sinner.”
Finally, you can even try the A.C.T.S. method of Christian prayer. It goes like this:
- Adoration: Give God praise and honor for who he is as Lord over all.
- Confession: Honestly deal with the sin in your prayer life.
- Thanksgiving: Giving thanks to God for what He has done and is doing in your life.
- Supplication: Pray for the needs of others and yourself.
There are a lot of great resources out there to help you develop a consistent practice of prayer. Personally, I use a couple of great apps. They are: Pray Now and Pray. In addition to those apps, next week I will start an emphasize upon daily prayer. Beginning this upcoming Sunday I will provide a daily prayer, Scripture, and devotional thoughts for 30 days via social media, emails, and printed packets. If you are interested, please let me know.
Another way to grow in the practice of daily prayer is by attending a retreat. Right before Holy Week our congregation will host a morning retreat at Hephatha‘s campus that will provide a longer block of time for you to read through Scripture and prayer. The date of this event is Saturday, March 17th. The theme will center on Jesus praying in Gethsemane.
Prayer is a lifelong journey. From my own experience, it focuses more on a relationship and we develop it as a spiritual discipline in our lives. So, cut yourself some slack if you are limited on time. Develop a simple rule of life that involves prayer and the reading of the Bible. Go to worship every Sunday. Talk to friends about how they pray.
I’m excited about taking this 30 day journey into deeper prayer as we prepare our hearts for the season of Lent.
I love being your pastor!
Because of Jesus,
