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| A meaningful graphic by The Daily Grace Co. |
I often find great ideas for blog posts on Instagram, especially in encouraging graphics from The Daily Grace Co. The one above, titled How to Strengthen Your Prayer Life, is a great case in point. Many of us have a goal to strengthen our prayer life in 2023, so I thought I would make use of this little graphic to share how I intend -- with God's help of course -- to do so.
💚 Make the time. 💚
It's so important, if you intend to strengthen your prayer life, to set aside time to pray every day. If setting aside time to pray is new to you, start with 5 to 10 minutes and spend every bit of that time praying. Set a timer if you have to. At this point my prayer time is between 30 to 60 minutes.
💚 Create a specific place. 💚
It's true that you can pray anywhere, at any time. Think of Nehemiah and his "arrow prayers". However, it's also important to have a specific place where you meet with God every day. My prayer place has been a cozy corner in our bedroom, a comfy rocker in an upstairs hallway, and is now a comfortable chair in a corner of our living room.
💚 Write them down. 💚
Write down your prayer requests in a notebook or journal. I've written a number of posts about my prayer journal and how to build one. Just click on " prayer journal " in the label cloud. I believe it's important to write down our requests so we don't forget them and also so we can cross them off with a "PTL" when God answers.
Sometimes I also like to write out some of my prayers. I keep these in the front of my prayer journal, and sometimes I go back and pray through them again.
💚 Reflect and give praise. 💚
Reflecting on all that God has done, and praising Him for those things as well as for the various aspects of His character, is an important part of every prayer time. In my prayer journal, I have pages for many of God's attributes, along with relevant Scriptures for each one, and I pray through one of these each day.
💚 Be persistent. 💚
Keep on praying, even if you don't feel as if you see God working. He is always working behind the scenes even when we don't see it. Don't give up.
And be persistent in having your prayer time every day. Don't get discouraged if you miss a day, or even a week. Just jump right in again and build that habit!
💚 Pray in community. 💚
If your church has a midweek prayer service, make it a priority to be there and to pray with others. If not, or if you can't get there, find a like-minded friend and get together to pray. Praying in community is powerful. I know one lady who prays with a friend on the phone every Monday night. They have been prayer partners for years.
These are some of the ways I plan to strengthen my prayer life in 2023. How about you? Do you have some goals for prayer this year? With God's help and in His strength, you can achieve them!
My oldest daughter gave me a five year prayer journal and I'm really enjoying it. I write a short prayer each day (if you miss just carry on) and in five years you will have five prayers written on the same page for each day. I have always written down prayers and love going back to see how they were answered.
ReplyDeleteOh, that is a wonderful idea, Joyce! It truly is such a blessing to write down your prayers, and to have five on the same page for each day after five years would be even nicer! That sounds like a great prayer journal!
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