Make time for prayer throughout your day
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- MAKE IT “PART OF YOU” DAILY
- Add a task entitled “Pray” to your to-do list. Then do it, but never cross it off 🙂
- Set a daily alarm on your phone that reminds you to pray
- Send yourself a daily email as a reminder for prayer (Guideposts and The Upper Room provide a daily email, for instance)
- Pray at regular times
- Before your feet hit the floor in the morning and before they leave the floor at night
- Before each meal
- When you get behind the wheel of the car [just don’t shut your eyes while driving! 🙂 ]
- Pair Prayer examples
- BE GUIDED
- Use daily themes (Sunday – saints, Monday – mission, Tuesday – troubled, Wednesday – world, Thursday – thanksgiving, Friday – friends/family, Saturday – self)
- Daily Office from Northumbria Community
- Listen to the Daily Prayer Audio, a guided 4-7 minute prayer developed by Steve Long using a theme for each day of the week
- MAKE IT “PART OF YOU” DAILY
- PRAY WITH OTHERS
- GET PHYSICAL
- Movement can enhance prayer!
- HERE are lots of “get physical in prayer” examples – give one a try!
- JOURNAL
- Track prayer joys/concerns in a spiral notebook or electronically in a computer spreadsheet, updating it regularly
- Review your personal prayer list for the day of the week (maybe using the same “day-of-the-week” structure as the Daily Prayer Audio?)
- USE RESOURCES
- Consider purchasing Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home by
- Presbyterian daily prayer app (note: there is a $2.99 charge for this iPhone app, but it’s a handy!)
- UMC site does a nice job with prayer methods to try
- Create your own 23rd Psalm commentary along these lines (Steve Long effort here)
- Use prayer from the Book of Common Worship
- Daily Edition is a great resource and allows you to pray for the church around the world over a one week period!
- There are litanies and prayers for various occasions — far too many to list here!
- Read about other prayer ideas and power of prayer in Steve’s Pinterest on prayer
- Another web possibility
- Sue Bradford Edwards has some nice pictures and prayers HERE
- “To Face the Future Without Fear” by Peter Marshall
- When dealing with health challenges: Psalm 103: 1-5
- Pray As You Go is a nice combination of music, leading thoughts, scripture with plenty of time allowed for prayer
- LISTEN – prayer is conversation, so sometimes we need to “be still and listen”
- PERIODICALLY MAKE THE SPACE READY FOR PRAYER
- Light a candle
- Move away from other distractions
- COMMUNITY
- become part of your faith community’s prayer circle, e-mail listing or ???
- organize or participate in a “prayer vigil” at least once a year
- GET TOGETHER – set up a Prayer Vigil (many thanks to Janet G. of Zion Lutheran for this!)
- TRY EXAMEN – this website has St. Ignatius Loyola’s examen
- How to pray and get results – Norman Vincent Peale
- WHY PRAY?
- VISUALIZE
- Dr. William R. Parker says “Make prayer an act of surrender … Pray dangerously. Let go and let God.” – HERE’S Pam Kidd’s article about visualizing that
- Consider a “breath prayer” (based on Richard Foster’s book Prayer) or Lynne Baab’s blog
- Many of us have people that we include regularly in our prayers. Maybe the “thread prayer” idea in this Guideposts webpage is one way to keep fidelity in those efforts?
- Consider these LENTEN PRAYERS, written by Rev. Dr. L.P. Jones (in audio form HERE)
- Consider this DAILY PRAYER for a few days?
- Does your faith community have a prayer chain, prayer corner or ??? that you could use?
- Here are 6 Summer Prayers from Bob Hostetler on Guideposts website
- The Welcoming Prayer
- When Desiring Guidance, consider The Merton Prayer
Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. (Romans 12:12)
Daily prayers will diminish your cares. – Author Unknown
