Some practical steps to beginning a prayerful practice in your daily or weekly routine
1) Choose a place – a spot – which is your place of prayer (it may be one or two spots depending upon what your daily routine allows). A key thought is this: Where is there a place where I can concentrate, where I can be alone with my thoughts and my prayers, for 15 or 20 or more minutes? Selecting a PLACE that works for you is potentially more important than a time that works for you.
2) Try to find a wedge of time which can work most days for you, and then tell yourself that this time (10 minutes, 15 minutes, etc.) is an investment in your ability to enjoy your relationship to God. Try to stick to that time, placing a reminder in your schedule, on your phone, etc., so that it becomes Protected time. (Note: as in the PLACE recommendations above, it might be a different time on some days based on your work or weekend schedules).
3) Before you begin your first time of prayer- keep a two-sided page of "notes" next to you to help prepare you to have options in your time of conversation with God. On the back of the page, leave it blank, and use it to write reminders that might pop into your brain about things needing to be done. Often I (Pastor Mike) get distracted in my prayers because I recall something important and am afraid that I'll forget it. So, by writing it down on a convenient sheet of paper right next to me, I can get it out of my head and yet not worry that I've forgotten something important.
On the front of the sheet of paper list some or all of the FIVE things below. These are not your prayer list, but they can help by becoming some of your prayer OPTIONS- things that you might want to talk to God about, or things you might want to listen to God's speaking about.
Something to thank God about;
Something about God which you see, and which encourages you;
Something which you need in your life;
Others who you are concerned about, and may want to talk to God about;
Have a request thought out, and written down- a request for Growing Awareness of how God can use you in your daily world
Before you begin your first time of prayer, create a list:
something to thank God for
something about God which you see and which encourages you
something which you need in your life
others who you are concerned about
a request for a growing awareness of God using you in this world.
*have a few psalms written down (their chapter numbers) or even their whole or partial texts (examples, Ps 1, Ps 23, Ps 103), so that reading or praying those words can help structure a part of your prayer time. The Psalms were given to us to help us have words to take to God. Often, they can be a stimulation to a "conversation" with God because sometimes the Psalms are "God speaking to us" and other times they are "Us speaking to God."
4) Lastly for a couple of weeks, try these two things:
*Start Small – set reachable goals (it can be a great area of growth to try for 2 or 3 prayer times per week). Grabbing for too much growth can become discouraging because tons of things can legitimately interrupt a prayer life. We learn to work around such things, but it takes lots of experience to do so.
*Tell someone about it, and have them pray for you… or, perhaps have them encourage you and not allow you to feel defeated. Although we are all trying to improve our habit of prayer, we also must remember that it is more than a habit. The Jesus life indicated it was a regular practice which defined how he understood what it means to have a life with God that was fruitful. Letting someone know you're on the journey can be a good encouragement to you.