Sometimes there just is nothing you can do about a situation. The line at the grocery store is too long and you end up late for a meeting. Or perhaps it’s something more serious: your children move away to University in a new city and you miss them. Perhaps it’s something like your body shape or a job situation. There are situations in life where we have to learn to be content with what we have. The best way to learn contentment is to learn to pray.
When you pray you are admitting, “okay, I don’t really know how to deal with this situation”. You are giving up your control and being humble. Essentially prayer is how we connect with God and we only really pray when we realise we need His help. Prayer isn’t an easy thing for lots of us, so don’t feel bad if you struggle to pray and then feel guilty because you don’t pray enough. Here are some prayer tips that will get you going:
Recognize your need of Him
Unless you have come to the point in your life where you realise that you really do need help from God you will find that you do not pray with the degree of sincerity which you would if you did. When you need God you will find yourself on your knees and ready to ask some real questions. Take the time out to think about your relationship with God, where are you and do you believe in Him?
Have a morning routine
The easiest way to bring prayer into your day is to start it off as a part of your morning routine. When you get up and grab a coffee, get dressed and head off to work stop for a moment and find 10 minutes to add prayer into your life. Your day will go so much better and you will find that you have a greater strength to deal with the tough things you must face.
Build prayer into an everyday task
Sometimes it can be hard to find the time to pray. What you can do is build prayer into an everyday task like washing the dishes or folding clothes. Every time you do this, remind yourself, “hey, it’s prayer hour,” and you can turn your hour of admin into an hour of prayer.
Pray with a friend on a regular basis
I like to have close friends who I pray with on a regular basis. When we can, we get together over dinner or tea and we pray over the things in our life where we are taking steps of faith, or we are believing for break-through or talking to God on someone else’s behalf. It is crucial to have this group prayer as God tells us in the Bible that unity commands a blessing.
Make a commitment
Decide to pray seriously for a month. Anyone can do almost anything for a month. It’s not too difficult. What you will find is once you’ve done one month of serious prayer then another one will not seem too bad. Try to make a month, or even a week of prayer time and see the difference it will make in your life.
Write down answered prayer
There is nothing better than seeing your prayers answered in ways which are beyond your imagination. God is good and He does answer prayer. Keep a book and in it you can record all your answered prayers. This is a helpful way to remind yourself of God’s goodness when you are going through a tough season.
The more you pray, the more you want to pray
There is nothing quite like God’s presence. When you pray your spirit touches His spirit and something powerful happens. We don’t always know what it will look like, or how it will all unfold, but we can trust that God hears our prayers, even if it doesn’t always feel like it.
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