Prayer
Week 01: Starting out in Prayer
If you’ve ever attempted to cultivate a life of prayer you know that it can seem difficult. What do you say? How should it feel? And how on earth can people do this for more than a few minutes? Maybe like Ricky Bobby you wonder what to do with your hands. Or maybe you have more serious questions like “Does God hear prayer? Does it even work? And when will God ever talk back?”
It’s no wonder that Jesus’ disciples said, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Lk. 11:1). Even the first disciples felt the same way about prayer as we do. But Jesus went on to explain that prayer is simple. He said, “When you pray, say…” and went on to teach them a prayer that takes no more than 25 seconds to pray. According to Jesus, prayer should be simple.
Pete Greig’s advice to those staring out in prayer is to keep it simple, keep it real, and keep it up.
The practice for the week: Set aside 5 minutes each day to spend time in prayer.
01 – Keep it Simple. Simple doesn’t mean easy. It means uncomplicated. Prayer is a two-way conversation with God. We don’t have to complicate it any more than that. Start your prayer time by talking to God about anything that’s on your mind. You can say it out loud, write it down, or say a silent prayer. There’s no pressure to talk a certain way or to pray for a certain amount of time. You don’t have to be weird, long winded, or intense for God to hear your prayer. Keep it simple
02 – Keep it real. A lot of the prayers in the Bible are really honest. Actually, brutally honest. They can even seem irreverent. But what this teaches us is that we can be real with God. God can handle your pain, anger, doubts, and frustrations. So many people think they need to tell God what they think he wants to hear rather than what they really think. But what kind of a relationship is that? Take some time to tell God how you're doing, where you feel pain, and where you want him to show up.
03 – Keep it up. The key to any practice is practice. We must learn to keep it going. This is what Jesus meant when he said we should "always pray and not give up" (Lk. 18:1). Make space in your daily rhythm to meet with God in prayer. This might mean you need to take something out of your schedule to make room. Pete Greig advises his readers to make their prayer time easy and enjoyable. These are two simple and effective ways to keep it up.
Make it easy — Make prayer as easy and as accessible as possible. Start where you’re at. Start with something you can commit to on a daily basis. A forty minute prayer session might not be realistic. That’s okay! Start with five minutes. If it’s easy, it’s more likely that you’ll keep it up.
Make it enjoyable — Break out some a good cup of coffee, sit on your favorite leather chair, and set the atmosphere with light music. Maybe that’s not your jam. Go on a prayer walk or journal your prayers if that feels better for you. If prayer is something you enjoy and look forward to, you’ll keep it up.
To summarize: Keep it simple — tell God what’s on your mind. Keep it real — tell God how you’re feeling. Keep it going — make it a repeatable rhythm in your life.
Recommended reading: How to Pray by Pete Greig