(Adapted from A Call to Spiritual Reformation by D. A. Carson)
Make a Plan to Pray
- Self-consciously set aside time for prayer.
- It is better to pray often with brevity than rarely but at length.
- Actually pray . . .not talk about praying.
Practice Mental-Drift Intervention
- Pray out loud or move your mouth even with low or no audible words.
- Pray scripture . . . the actual scripture or interchange prayer and Bible reading.
- Pace as you pray.
Develop a Pray-Partnership
- Pray with a spouse.
- Pray with a co-worker.
- Pray with a neighbor or friend.
Choose a Framework for Prayers
- Use the Lord’s prayer as an outline for your praying.
- Pray from your inner circle of influence out to less influential people in your life.
- Study other people’s prayers – your role models/mentors, written prayers, prayers of godly people who left footprints for others.
Systematize Your Prayers
- Create “lists” you pray through.
- Use prepared lists like missionary prayer guides.
- Use a prayer journal with daily prayer prompts.
Sprinkle Praise, Confession, and Intercession
- Picture God as a prayer-hearing God.
- Agonize and pray in authority of Jesus.
- Pray until you come to delight in God’s Presence.
Quotes on Prayer for your Encouragement:
Effective prayer is the fruit of a relationship with God, not a technique for acquiring blessings.
~D. A. Carson
Good praying is more easily caught than taught.
~D. A. Carson
Praying is not like carpentry or cookery; it is the active exercise of a personal relationship, a kind of friendship, with the living God and his Son Jesus Christ, and the way it goes is more under divine control than under ours.
D. A. Carson
Compiled By: Anne Gurley
