Six Ways to Cultivate a Prayer Habit

Six Ways to Cultivate a Prayer Habit

Our garden this year is completely overrun. We had grand plans for green beans, green peppers, pumpkins, tomatoes, squash, and even broccoli. Unfortunately, we let it be overrun with weeds and failed to water it during the drier days. It is a sad little plot of land, barren and empty. Cultivating a garden takes work, and so does cultivating a prayer life. If we neglect prayer in our Bible study time, we might find our souls and spiritual life barren (like our garden). The fruit of the Spirit won’t just blossom in our life without a little work. Prayer is one of those works we must learn to do.

Over the course of this year, 2017, I’ve dedicated specific time to my quiet time to prayer. It wasn’t easy, but I preserved. It took me weeks, maybe a couple of months to find a good routine. I was inspired by Ruthie Gray’s CK5 challenge back in January.

First, I purchased a simple prayer journal. Everyday I opened the journal and purposefully began pouring out my heart to God. Flipping through the journal, I realized I didn’t do it every single day. Some days I wrote long, detailed prayers, other days I simple wrote: “help me.” My prayers reflected my mood, the music I was listening to, and the books I was reading.

Before I knew it, I had a habit. I realized I was opening my prayer journal more and more often. Prayer became more than words on a page, and many times I would spend time praying my mind, not writing anything down. Those prayers found its way to the Father, always listening.

I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Psalm 116:1

I love Psalm 116 because it implies God is sitting on His majestic Heavenly throne, bending an ear to the earth listening to hear what we are saying to him. Why aren’t we speaking to Him? For the past six months I’ve found six ways to cultivate a prayer habit.

6 ways to cultivate a prayer habit. #prayerhabit #prayerlife #prayer

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Six Ways to Cultivate a Prayer Habit

1. Get a prayer journal. You can make your own, print off some prayer sheets I’ve created, or if you would like, just do a simple google search of prayer journals. Find one that is simple, maybe daily or weekly. The most important things is to get something you will use.
2. Read at least one verse or passage to hear what God would say to you first. See below for ideas on this.
3. Listen to soft praise and worship music. You can see my playlist for Bible study here. I try update this page often.
4. If you miss a day, give yourself grace. Don’t worry about doing it every single day. Maybe set a goal of 3-4 days a week. Begin small and work your way up to everyday.
5. Begin your prayer time with Praise and Confession right away. No matter how you formulate your prayers, I found it completely changed my point of view of prayer if I confessed my sin and simple praised God first – before listing my requests.
6. Write out your purpose. Why do you want to cultivate a prayer life? To gain a better understanding of God? Maybe you desire to grow to be more like Him in a specific way. For me, I wanted to find a way to daily dwell in His presence. Keep your purpose in front of you each day.

If you would like to begin developing a prayer habit, let me encourage you: just start today! TO encourage your heart, I’ve created a PDF of some of my favorite verses to use kick off your prayer time each morning. It also contains prompts for why you might want to cultivate a prayer habit.

As always, leave your tips below! I’d love to hear how you use your time of prayer! 

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P.S. Did you know I wrote a reading plan designed for busy moms during the summer?? Check it out! Super affordable and easy to follow. A simple way to stay in God’s word during the summer!