Transforming Your Prayer Life (Part 1)
Prayer isn’t just a nice idea, but necessary! It requires a specific time and a sacred space. Love not legalism should draw us to prayer. Ordinary people like us can develop prayer lives that are actually powerful and transformative. Stephen and Aleck Kendrick, in The Battle Plan for Prayer, speak of prayer as “a beautiful, mysterious, and awe-inspiring gift: There is no greater privilege for anyone than being able to personally talk with and speak into the ears of Almighty God (p.9).” There is nothing more personal and intimate than prayer. We have a direct connection to the throne of grace to which every believer has been invited (Heb.4:12) .”Prayer is the pathway by which God produces intimacy, oneness, and connection with Him.” (Chip Ingram, “Three Ways to Transform Your Prayer Life,” Living on the Edge). “This is why prayer is so powerful. And why prayer can change us and the world around us.”
I hope you have discovered “the richness and greatness of prayer!” Jesus said, “Always pray and never give up,” in Luke 18. Unlike the unjust judge, our God loves to answer prayer! Persistence pays. It’s not about overcoming God’s reluctance; it’s about my relationship with God. God isn’t reluctant, so keep on praying! The only way for any person to learn pray is to pray. Prayer isn’t a theoretical exercise. You can’t become a person of prayer overnight. You can’t attend a couple of workshops on prayer, and think you’ve mastered the art of prayer. It doesn’t happen in one day, one weekend, one experience. Instead, you must be willing to take the long slow walk by doing daily what it takes to become the person of prayer you want to be. As Maxwell would say, it’s not about what you do in a day, but what you do daily that makes you the person you want to be. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine. So what rhythms and routines have you set up to push you forward toward success? You can’t expect transform your prayer life if you do the status quo. “You must first think, act and believe different before you become different” (Cabral Huff). “You will never change your results unless you change something that you do daily.”
Prayer is powerful. “What a privilege to carry, everything to God in prayer!” We have constant access! And He walks with me & He talks with me… and He tells me I am His own…” Why then would we ever neglect it? Prayer is a privilege, not a duty. Like all good things, prayer requires some discipline. Yet I believe that life with God should seem more like friendship than duty. Prayer has features in common with all relationships that matter. If prayer stands as the place where God and human beings meet, then I must learn about prayer. This is why in Luke 11, when the disciples overheard Jess praying, they asked, “Lord, teach us to pray! “That’s why you’ve come to this workshop! We haven’t a single hope of becoming a praying church until we become a praying people. “There can never be a praying church without praying people—buildings don’t pray” (Doug Small).
If you struggle to have a disciplined prayer life, I am not here to scold you or shame you. “What blessing are you missing by prayerlessness? Does God want to bless you in some stunning way that you have missed by seeing prayer so narrowly as transactional? Prayer is heaven’s way of blessing. I wish we could understand that God is not “tightfisted and resistant, but benevolent and generous.” The only remedy for prayerlessness is repentance! God loves company. Prayer is a privilege. It changes us to more fully partner with God. “The purpose of prayer is to connect us to God’s heart so that we can rise above our problems and live for Him.” Jud Wilhite: “We should be drawn by God’s love, (not by a sense of duty or guilt if we don’t). His presence provides you with a ‘want-to’ motivation that is much more satisfying than a ‘have-to’ motivation.”Don’t leave the gift of prayer unopened and untouched! It stays tucked away in the closet. Open the gift! We are rich in Christ so let’s not live poor as Timothy Keller challenged. Let’s not leave the gift of united, praying together untouched and unopened, being rich yet living poor! James 4:2 says, “We have not, because we ask not,” that is, because we don’t pray. We don’t “put ourselves in a position to be blessed.” It’s true, we should pray. We must pray. But healthy prayer moves beyond duty to delight.
No one’s prayer life was ever transformed by good intentions. You must act upon what you know. When it comes to prayer good intentions are completely overrated. We say we pray…believe in prayer…but every indication is that we don’t pray all that much…if people surveyed weren’t lying. We must not only say we believe in prayer, but we must also pray. This requires a secret place. Jesus called it a “Prayer Closet.” Mark Batterson calls it “a Whispering Spot.” Whatever you call it, every Christian needs one! Yancey writes, “If we give ourselves to prayer, ‘God finds ways to communicate to those who truly seek God, especially when we lower the volume of the surrounding static.’” Your secret prayer space ought to afford this. Do you have one? Where is it? It’s a place where you have your greatest reception. I can still remember the early days of cell phones. “Can you hear me now?” Had to be close to cell tower for good reception. One or two bars—not much—five is best to avoid a dropped call!
Your whispering spot doesn’t have to be exotic. They’re often as ordinary as a closet that turns into a prayer closet. The key isn’t geography; it’s consistency. It does no one any good to have a place if you never go there! But If you show up, God will too (Whisper, 45-47)! He never rejects a call for help! “The Lord hears his people when they call to him for help” (Ps.34:17). Your prayer space is not a talking point; rather “a listening point.” Listening doesn’t happen by default; it happens by design. You have to go outside the camp and build a tent of meeting as Moses did in Exodus 33. God made the face of Moses shine in His presence… the people could see it. Oh that the world would see the goodness that comes from 15 minutes a day in the presence of Jesus! This would change the entire trajectory of your day. Spending meaningful time alone with God might result in the goodness of God written all over our faces. Acts 4:13 – “…Took note they had been with Jesus…”
More than anything else, prayer is a relationship. When we reduce it to a regimen, we deprive ourselves of what all who knew God throughout the Scriptures expressed in their prayers: that God is alive, and the He knows us and lets Himself be known by us, that we can enjoy a deep and intimate personal relationship with Him in prayer. Begin to think of prayer as a Rest Stop at the beginning of your day– your intentional time to “Be still and know that He is God” (Ps. 46:10). To let go and relax! You don’t need a smart watch to tell you to “Breathe.” Whispering spots are intentional! Discipline is definitely required. So is silence. If you want to hear the heart of God, silence is the key. If you want the Spirit of God to fill you, be still—clear out the clutter. I discovered journaling back in 1990. “Yesterday…” –your “post-game analysis…” Do you expect God to show up when you go your secret place? Somebody counted 29 times in the Book of Acts where God shows up to give divine leadership to the Early Church. When You pray, do you expect God to intervene? Does He speak regularly to you? Yes He does if you are intentional about it. Seek Him and He will show up.
