Skip to main content

Getting Closer to God Through Prayer

Now before I start, let me say that this post literally could go on forever and ever so this definitely is not an all inclusive plan for building a stronger relationship between you and the Lord.  This is just a couple ways we can get to know Him better daily through prayer.

First, through constant conversation with Him.  You will not have a close relationship with God by going to church once, or even twice a week.  One book even says that a daily quiet time will not bring the closeness to Him that we often desire.  We are to share all of our life with Him.  Let me be clear though, a daily quiet time and of study and devotion is vital to the relationship, but you cannot give God a time slot on your schedule and then check it off as being done.  He should be included in every activity, every conversation, everything that comes up during your day. 

Alone time with God is important, and Jesus modeled that for us.  But you can pray continually throughout the day and be in constant conversation with God.  Brother Lawrence, who wrote Practicing the Presence of God in the 17th century, suggested praying shorter conversational prayers throughout the day in order to keep our minds from wandering.  He said, "I do not advise you to use a great multiplicity of words in prayer, since long discourses are often the occasions for wandering."  In this attention deficit, got to have it now society, what wise advise that was given over 300 years ago. 

In The Purpose-Driven Life, Rick Warren suggests using breath prayers, a brief sentence you can share in one breath to bring your focus and heart on God if even just for a minute:  "You are with me," "I receive your grace," "I'm depending on you," "I want to know you," "I belong to you," "Help me trust you," or consider using a short phrase from scripture. 

We stay in touch with our best friends constantly now either by phone, social media, text, e-mail, whatever.  God also has unlimited minutes, text, and data so we can reach out to Him any time and any place.  If you're like me and have trouble sometimes focusing on long prayers and get to thinking about other things, slow down.  Make a prayer list and pray items off one or two at a time every hour or so throughout the day.  The minutes and seconds spent talking to God add up and the continual prayer keeps our hearts and minds coming back to Him throughout the day instead of just in the morning or at night before bed. 

"Pray without ceasing." - 1 Thessalonians 5:17

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2020 is Hindsight...Finally!

Wow, what a year! 2020 could literally be an entire decade, maybe more, of history, change, and lessons rolled up into these twelve months. While many aspects of 2020 were kind of sucky and we would like to forget them, it will certainly be a year to remember. And it will be enlightening when this year is looked back on in 10, 25, or 50 years to be discussed. I wonder if we'll seem like geniuses or idiots? Probably both to some extent! While there is so much that I could consider and analyze about this year, I'll try to break some of it down into four dimensions - Physical, Spiritual, Mental, and Social/Emotional. These are events and happenings from my world and perspective and I'm trying to be open in sharing and would love to hear from others on events you found most transforming. Physical When COVID cause gyms to close, that messed me up. Our town and state were late to be hit with severe cases and therefore later than many across the country to close up shop. I'm n...
Post a Comment
Read more

Worship > Fellowship

I believe that worship, true worship of God, is more important than fellowship with other believers.  Now I'm not saying that fellowship and relationships aren't important.  But I am saying that if I'm not worshiping God, if I'm not right with him, then my other relationships can't be right.  My fellowship and worship with him is more important than my relationship with my wife, my son, family, friends, my church, and my community.  Think about it.  How can I love my wife like Christ loved the church if I don't love Christ?  I wouldn't know how to love without knowing him.  Why should she submit to me if I'm not worth submitting to?  And yes I do believes wives should submit, but I also believe that won't be an issue as long as she's submitting to a godly husband.  (Ephesians 5:22-25) Our love for others must flow from our love and worship of God.  1 John 4:19-21 reads, "We love because he first loved us.  If anyone says,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Do You Need Revival?

"Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in You?" - Psalm 85:6 The thoughts below were in my devotional this morning by Dr. Lee Sheppard: "So how can we know if we need revival in our lives?  Well, we need revival when our salvation has lost its joy, when our sin does not break our heart, and when we make little to no effort to witness to the lost.  We need revival when worship becomes boring, when we are at odds with believers and see no need for reconciliation, and when we fail to believe God for the impossible.  We need revival when we have to be begged to give and serve in church and when we would rather make money than give money.  We need revival when we have to be entertained to be drawn to church and when we are indifferent to the fact that there are 2.5 billion people on the planet who have never heard the name of Jesus.  We need revival when we don't regularly see the supernatural evidence of God's power and when ...
Post a Comment
Read more