Freshen Up...Your Prayer Life

Yesterday I spoke at a women's Bible study, and at the end of our time together, I had the privilege of hearing one of the ladies pray. I call it a privilege, because hearing her out-loud prayer inspired me to want to pause and take more time with my own prayers. She didn't rush. She took her time, prayed genuinely from the bottom of her heart, and it was a beautiful piece of a conversation. I didn't feel like I was eavesdropping, but I did feel like I had been invited to sit by while she had a little talk with Jesus.

Ironically, I had already decided I was going to write about prayer today, and then God gave me that extra boost, so I think this is some pretty perfect timing, don't you?

When I was a little girl, we always had family devotions at home, and during our prayer time at the end of it, we all took turns praying out loud. We didn't say a scripted prayer, like "Now I lay me down to sleep," but it became the family joke that I always said the same words, and I would say them so fast that no one could understand them. They actually came out like one really long word that made supercalifragilistiexpialidocious seem rather short.

I think I did it because I was embarrassed to pray out loud. And I am not alone in that thought. I know a good number of adults who are still embarrassed to pray out loud in front of others. It can be a daunting task, and when you're little and just learning, I can see how it would be scary!

Eventually I got better about praying out loud, and I remember understanding it for the first time when I was in high school, and I'd gone to visit my sister, brother-in-law, and niece for a few days. Right before I left to come back home, my brother-in-law mentioned to me that he could tell I'd been praying in front of my niece, because he had seen a change in the way she offered her prayers at the end of the day. I hadn't done anything wrong, he was quick to assure me, but he said he could tell my prayers had influenced hers, and he was glad to know I'd allowed her be part of that time in my day.

I firmly believe it's a good idea to switch up your prayer habits upon occasion. It's not because God gets bored and needs you to try a new approach, but rather because I think it helps you think about your prayers in a new and fresh way. Maybe you'll take prayer a bit more seriously. Maybe you'll learn something new about God in the process.

Spring is a time of growth, right? Why not grow as pray-ers this spring?

1. Write down your prayers.

Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash

I know. You may not like to write. But stay with me for just a moment! I like writing my prayers for two reasons. One, it forces me to slow down and really think about what I'm saying, rather than just spouting off a smattering of words as fast as I can talk. And I think we've established that I can talk in auctioneer-like ways if I want to. Furthermore, written prayers give me a permanent record of my prayer journey, and I can look back a few months down the road to see what I prayed earlier. That can be an incredible faith boost, because it shows me how my heart changed and/or how God went about answering those prayers. I don't write down every single word of every single prayer I ever pray. But I do like to keep written track of specific requests so I have that journey preserved. (You can write out entire prayers or you can write out bullet points if that's faster and easier!)

2. Take a prayer walk.

Back when I worked at IWU, I participated in their wellness program, and my favorite form of exercise was walking. I wasn't yet a runner (and it may be debatable whether I am now!) and I didn't know how to do any other kind of working out, really. All that knowledge came with Ryan. But I could walk! And I enjoyed it. Because I preferred to be situationally aware while out walking alone, I didn't listen to music as I walked. But I would pray! All those many miles I trekked across the pavement, I spent time praying (often out loud) for the things that burdened my heart. I still do the same thing now, though I often just pray in my head, because running and speaking don't coexist for me. And in the winter, when I have to pace the house to get in all my daily steps, I pray as I pace. Moving around keeps me from getting sleepy, and speaking the prayers out loud helps me keep my mind focused!

3. Pray Scripture.

Sometimes I'm speechless. (I know. No one believes that. But it is true!) Sometimes I just simply do not have the words of my own to speak before the Lord. When those days come, I often open up my Bible to the Psalms and just read through some of those, speaking them out loud as prayers. It serves two purposes. First, it gives me words when I don't have my own, and secondly, it usually ends up comforting my heart in the process, because the words are so soothing over me.

I have another favorite way to pray Scripture, and it goes back to my single days! Several years before I got married, I picked out verses that I hoped would become themes for my someday-marriage. I would pray those verses over Ryan, even before I knew he would be my husband! Now, whenever I encounter one of those verses in my reading or study times, it means even more to me, because I remember I prayed those words - hundreds of times - over this season in which I now live.

4. Gather together.

Yesterday, when I visited the women's Bible study, several of the ladies mentioned how grateful they were for their fellow Bible-study-sisters and how they had prayed together over their burdens, and because of those prayers, answers started arriving. Even though it's a blessing to pray alone, there's something sweet about gathering with someone else - or even a group of other people - to pray together. Ryan and I love to pray together, and sometimes when one of us is feeling particularly overwhelmed, we'll stop whatever we're doing to pray out loud together. When I spoke at the lake retreat a few days ago, we ended the retreat with a time of prayer for one of the ladies carrying some particularly big burdens. Like I said at the beginning of this post, praying out loud can be really uncomfortable if you're not used to it. But I think praying together with others can be an encouraging blessing, if you give it a try. And you may find (as I did throughout my growing up years) that it gets easier to pray out loud in front of others the more you do it!

5. Don't talk.

Wait. Didn't I just write about this? No...this is a little bit different. This time I mean don't talk at all. Don't talk? It's true! Romans 8:26 says, "We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans." I am not too proud to say that sometimes I absolutely don't know what to say in my prayers. I'm not sure how best to pray. And in those moments, opening up to a Psalm isn't always the best answer. Sometimes I just sit before the Lord. I don't say things out loud. I ask Him to fill in the blanks, because I don't know what to say. And I'll tell you, those moments have included some of my best prayer times ever. Less is (at times) absolutely more. Sometimes the best way to freshen up your prayer life is to say nothing at all. Just sit quietly before the Lord and let Him take over.

Maybe you've tried all these things before. But if you haven't, pick one and give it a chance. It might just freshen up your prayer life in ways you never expected!