'And He spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; ( Luke 18:1)
Hey Blog Fam,
Trust we are all doing great and following hard after all that the Lord has placed in our hearts.
I apologize for the silence for these past two weeks, I have no excuse for the silence, but the good thing is we are here, a post that will bless you is up, and trust that you will be tremendously blessed reading it.
This post was first published on this Blog on the 16th of June, 2020, and almost two years after, I believe it will bless you in no small way. I have added a few more notes to the sub-headings which is as a result of my growth in the past 2 years.
If your prayer life in the first quarter of the year wasn't so consistent, or you are plainly just looking forward to having a richer prayer life, then I pray that as you go through the words of this Blogpost, you will be stirred up to deepen your relationship with the Lord. Amen.
Without further ado, let's get right to today's post.
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I remember while growing up, it was common to hear people singing this song in church,
Prayer is the key, prayer is the key, prayer is the master key, Jesus started with prayer and ended with prayer, prayer is the master key.
This song talks about how important praying is, but as I began to grow up, I realized that although prayer is so important, there are times when I find myself not praying for a long time despite knowing how important it is to pray.
There are times when amidst the hustle-bustle of life and living, you suddenly wake up to realize that the last time you prayed alone was three months ago.
Prayerlessness might be due to a lot of things like a change in environment, a new assignment, a new schedule, or even a change in status (from a single to a married individual), but as genuine as all those excuses might be, no excuse is ever worth giving.
There are times when things we never planned for might just begin to crop into our daily schedules and before we realize it, it has been days, weeks, or months since we really prayed. While some of us might still be able to whisper some words of prayer as we take our bath, or a plus Jesus minus Satan kind of prayer as we are locking the door of our apartment on our way out, for how long do we intend to keep up with that kind of life?
It is usually to the devil’s delight when we don’t spend time in prayer, as he knows what we stand to gain by talking to God and what we lose when we get too busy to pray. Prayerlessness makes you become more cranky, easily annoyed, more prone to other vices, this is possible because when you don't pray your flesh becomes stronger and your spirit becomes weaker, but to make sure that the devil isn’t winning this battle against your soul, then we must be very disciplined in this regard.
Like every worthwhile project, prayer needs a measure of discipline.
I know how easy it is to pray, it is easier to listen to songs, listen to messages, and some othertimes even read the bible than it is to pray.
While some of us enjoy studying the bible to pray, but one thing we should realize is that they must both go hand-in-hand if we will ever be able to fully live the God-kind-of-life here on earth.
So to jump back to praying after a long break;
1. Admit That You Haven’t Been Faithful
To thy own self be true.
I love the above statement so much. While it isn't good to deceive others, you can still do that and get away with it, but if you are deceiving your own self, hmm.
If you haven’t been praying as much as you should, then admit to yourself that you need to wake up from your slumber.
If you still keep pacifying yourself, saying statements like "I pray for two to three minutes before I sleep every day" that will only keep you under the blanket of prayerlessness but as you admit where you are, you can then make progress from there.
Let me use this analogy, when you are trying to take an uber, the first thing the app will ask you is your current location, while it is important to you to get to that beautiful party that you are going for, the app might not be able to help you if you are not first imputing your current location.
This is the same thing I am asking you to do to your prayer life.
Admit where you are!
2. Don’t Make Prayer Time An All-me Affair
One of the reasons why people suddenly lose interest in praying is because they see prayer as just something that totally revolves around their lives and families.
If you keep praying every day just about you, your parents, and your siblings, it is only a matter of time before you begin to run out of prayer points. If you come from a small nuclear family like mine which is only four (father and mother inclusive), then you’ll know that just praying just for your family every day of the week is definitely going to be wearisome.
But, you can take out time to pray for other people;
Friends
Mentors
Colleagues at work
Course mates
Country
People trying to conceive (both those you know personally and those you don’t)
People going through one hard time or the other
People on the verge of committing suicide
People whose homes are on the verge of breaking
People whose lives aren’t going the way they want
People who are confused and who want clarity
People who are looking to God for a spouse
People with stubborn children
Men and women of faith (those men and women whose messages are on your phone/laptops need prayer too).
.
.
.
The list is endless.
Prayer of intercession is great.
With this type of prayer, you can never run out of people to pray for, and you’ll realize that by praying for these different categories, you will be able to tarry in the place of prayer as against if your prayer was just centered on yourself and everything that revolves around you.
3. Pray In The Spirit
If you have been baptized in the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues, please as much as often, pray in the spirit. There is extra energy this gives you.
4. Know What Works For You
Till tomorrow, I for one will continually envy those who can pray on their knees for hours, one of the best ways to catch me sleeping in the place of prayer is for me to be on my knees. And there are others who can pray for hours without end on their knees. Just know what works for you.
I pray more when I am pacing around or having a prayer walk, the time just goes by.
If you discover that you feel more tired when you are kneeling to pray, then stand up to pray, pace around, there isn’t any rule that says you must pray on your knees. While kneeling connotes a submission stance, but since you won’t actively be able to talk to God that way, then stand, he is the one heart whom you are praying to and he sees you. The most important thing to do is to pray.
5. Get Resources To Help
One of the good things God has given us via social media is the ability to be able to access sounds and tunes by gospel minstrels just by the click of a button.
There are different ministries that have recorded sounds that you can listen to and be energized to pray.
Get books on the subject of prayer too.
Get resources to help you on this journey.
Getting the resources is only the first step, if you don't use them, they won't profit you at all, so go ahead to get them and be committed to using them.
6. Rely On The Help Of The Spirit
There will be times when you will want to pray and your body/flesh has other plans, after you have done all you should, allow yourself to be carried on the wings of the spirit, you’ll find yourself praying more on those days than you normally would have done.
Remember, we do not know how to pray, but it is the Spirit who intercedes for us with groaning that cannot be uttered.
