1. Set apart some time for prayer and commit to it.
2. Plan where you will pray.
It does not have to be at home, but you also do not need to turn prayer into some religious ritual. Be creative when you choose the place for prayer. For instance, there was a time in my life when I made walking into prayer time. I called it “a prayer walk”. I went out in the street for the purpose of prayer.
If we want to have fruitful prayer life, then prayer must become a habit. In order for that to happen we must gain some skills in the area of prayer. Skill means how we do something. When you know what you need to do and why you need to do it, the next step is HOW to do it. If you don’t know how, this activity can’t become a habit. But you won’t be able to learn how, unless you actually start doing it. I won’t know how to pray, unless I start praying. I am sure we already know very much about prayer. You can put to practice this knowledge that you have. Thus you obtain skills. Skills are developed by putting knowledge to practice.
When a person repents, he can start developing his prayer life. We must know that God does not turn away from us even when we do not pray. God is very patient and He wants us to understand that without prayer we are spiritually weak and unable to enter the things He has prepared for us. Effective prayer is the thing that opens a way for us and allows God to walk ahead of us. God waits until we come to full realization of it. He is good to His children, but His goodness must lead us to repentance. Many people do not understand it. Sometimes we do things that go against God’s orders and at the same time we feel like it is alright.
The Bible says, that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. What shall I do when I feel my prayer doesn´t work well. Shall I read a book about upsurge and healing, or listen to a sermon about liberation from curse, maybe I should blame devil and demons for all failures of my praying life. It´s them who set obstacles for me. Quite often people blame devil for all failures in their life. When I listen to the sermons constantly focusing on satan and demons I ask myself, whom are we preaching and whom are we glorifying? Read gospels to see what Jesus said to the demon. He said: “leave him” then continued his way. It´s not a satan fault that you don´t practise praying.
Knowledge is an understanding of theory of what we have to do and why. In order to make something as your habit you need to understand the theoretical aspects of such necessity. How is it connected to our praying life? Let me explain that. We acquire knowledge by reading the Bible, Word of God. We know why we have to pray, then we can make a habit of praying, just because we know what we have to do. We should pray without ceasing – I know this and so I do why. Let me elaborate on it. Awareness of what I gain or lose by having a particular habit helps us to develop that habit.
“ … for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
Prayer unites us with our Heavenly Father, helps to know the depth of the His heart, His love and His plans for our life.
Do you remember Daniel? He was a man of God, similarly to David, one, whose attitude to prayer and fellowship with God was very serious. In Daniel 6:10 we read:
«When Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house (now his windows were open in his chamber toward Jerusalem) and he bowed down on his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did before».
As you know, human life consists of habits. There are also good and bad habits. Any habit that brings a positive outcome requires some efforts and discipline from us. Unless we have a habit of praying our prayer life will never become effective neither fruitful. Let me quote the statement of an Ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle who once said about habits – “We are the product of what we repeatedly do”. In other words, our habits are our essence. Therefore, in order to excel at something, we have to make it our habit.
«Thanks God, I already have such habit». I am glad about you. The other might say «I´ve already tried, but failed to do so”. I am glad about you too.
I pray today, so that this Word helps you to overcome your weakness and instability solving this issue.
First of all, I want to stress out the fact, that prayer is love relationships with God. Why do I mention that and why it´s so important when you try to make prayer as your habit. We already discussed it, that prayer is not learning of different methods about how convince God to do our will. Lack of necessity to pray is one of few reasons why believers pray just a little.
God desires for us to realize that the church that prayer also wins; it is united church which cannot be overcome by the gates of hell. Praying church is a growing church that experiences God’s power and miracles. God promised that He has established His church and that the gates of hell will not prevail against it. May God help every one of us to give prayer the central place in our lives; may God’s order be established in our lives. I am not talking about redundant, fruitless imitation of prayer; I am talking about the prayer that touches heaven, releases God’s power which was seen in the life of Jesus.
What are we going to do with the truth we have heard – the truth about importance and crucial nature of prayer? We must change! First, we need to ask God to help us to pray constantly. Second, we may ask other people you consider being strong in prayer to pray for you and help you put your prayer life in order. There is no shame in asking someone to pray for you.
I remember a period in my life when I had lost a desire to pray; it seemed boring and my prayer seemed lifeless. And for some reason I wasn’t able to change it.
