I struggle a bit with taking time for prayer. At the moment my prayer life is very sporadic. I pray when things happen, and when I have told people I'll pray for them. I pray every night in bed when I have turned off the lights, but I'm asleep in minutes. I feel prayer is the most important thing for a Christian (as well as Bible reading). When I go up I begin with breakfast and coffee, and after that I'm stuck on the web until I'm off for work. What advice would you give me to get a better prayer life? I think it has to be easy to follow or I won't continue.
God bless!
The more I make prayer a religious ritual, the more I think of it as a formal, spiritual practice, the less often I find myself talking with God. But when I think of prayer as just speaking with God, I find myself turning to Him all throughout the day, as I do with, say, my wife, and chatting with Him, not foolishly or carelessly, but easily, just as I do with my spouse. The Spirit, Scripture says, "brings to remembrance" God's word (
John 14:26; John 16:13), and in this way God replies to my prayers (if a reply is warranted). I am, then, in an attitude of prayer all the time, inviting God to stand at the center of my living at all times (where He ought to be).
More and more, my prayer to God during the day is one of surrender. I submit myself to Him all throughout each day (as I remember to do so) when I'm eating, or working, or sitting in traffic, or washing the dishes, or whatever (
James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:6; Micah 6:8). There is no part of my life so mundane that I keep it separate from God's control. And as I submit to Him, I see Him acting in my life more obviously than ever before. He does in my life the things He promises in His word to do - convict, illuminate, strengthen, comfort, transform - in response to my submission. God loves me and desires my love (
1 John 4:7-19; Matthew 22:36-38), which means He deals with me without coercion, waiting on my yielding to His will and way (
Romans 6:13; Romans 12:1) before He transforms my life. As His work in me, and through me, is evident, I find myself more eager to pray, more excited in my walk with Him, my reflex becoming increasingly to turn to Him in everything.