As someone who was once compared to E.M Bounds and less than three years later, I stopped praying altogether and stayed that way for another five years, I know a thing or two about losing your prayer life and how you can get it back.
In this blog post, I use my experience and lessons from the Bible to help you understand how to regain your prayer life.
- Stop seeing prayer as a chore, see is as a conversation
Many have defined prayer and made it to feel like a chore, like some KPI to meet up with as a christian.
It is this mentality towards prayer that pushes people away from prayer and praying.
In the real sense, prayer is talking to God. It is simply holding a conversation with God.
I remember asking my pastor a question in one bible study we had in church and he told me when the disciples met Jesus and asked Him who sinned that made the man born blind to be that way, they were doing so because He was physically there with them.
While Jesus is not physically present, if we need to ask God a question like that, we speak with Him – that speaking is what prayer is.
If you begin to see prayer as a means to speak with God and not some ritual to a highly placed, unreachable God, it will unburden the idea of prayer in your mind.
- Set an actual time to pray – and even have a rhythm for it
Now this one might seem mechanical but if I had to give the best piece of advice to get your prayer life and fire back, then it would be this one – have an actual time to pray.
The same way you set an alarm to wake you up, the same way you fix a meeting with someone for 2pm or a dinner date by 7pm is the same way you should schedule your prayer.
And yes, it needs to be daily and for a specific amount of time, which is why I said have a rhythm.
Before you run away thinking I am one of those people who want to shove down hours of prayers down your throat (I will but not in this article), everything that is worth doing takes time and that includes praying.
For someone starting out, I will recommend praying at least for one hour. But after seeing how an hour of prayer can feel long especially if you have never done it before, I believe praying 30 minutes each day should not hurt.
The reason I am going lower is because this is going to be a daily thing. Every day, at a certain time and for a certain duration, you should be praying.
In my case, I went one hour thrice each day. You can do 30 minutes at once or do 15 minutes twice or 10 minutes three times. The goal here is to be consistent, to have a rhythm, and to build the prayer muscle.
- Never miss “morning devotion”
Any Nigerian who had really strict and religious parents like mine will experience PTSD at the mention of morning devotions.
Nobody dislikes morning devotion moments like me. For many years, I think since I was 13, I have been working up really late at night. I am writing this particularly article by 3am on August 16 and I will probably be done with my work by 4:30am or 5am – this has been my lot since I was 13.
Imagine doing this and probably going to bed by 5am, then by 6am, you are forced to wake up by your dad who’s going around singing at the top of his voice.
It can be annoying but that daily pattern of fellowshipping with God is very important if you are going to have a prayer life.
Your devotional time should be a non-negotiable, unskippable part of your day.
It should be the first thing you do and it can be simple – get a devotional message, read the Bible, pray, and spend a bit of time meditating.
That’s all you need to do.
I recommend this for people who are often too busy to find a special time to pray.
- Get a group or someone to pray with at least once every week
When Jesus went up the mountain to pray, he took some of his disciples. While He was at the Garden of Gethsemane, He told Peter, James, and John to watch with Him which means pray with Him. When the Apostles were threatened, the Bible said they went to their people and they prayed together.
You need a group of people to pray with.
It won’t be daily – it could be weekly or even monthly. Having a group of people to pray with can push the reactivation of your zeal for prayer.
I remember the month I got my prayer life back. I had to find 4 of my close friends and ask for us to meet somewhere to pray and after some days of prayer, I immediately felt good enough to keep going on my own.
However, once and again, we gathered to pray.
The Bible says Iron sharpens Iron. This is what we do in prayer – we sharpen our brothers and sisters.
- Use the Teach Us to Pray Devotional
The Teach Us to Pray Devotional is a 30-day prayer devotional that is written to help anyone move from a dead prayer life to a living one, from a lost prayer altar to one burning with serious flames.
If you need more help, then you should get the devotional.
We have received diverse testimonies from people who have used it and we are sure you will become the prayerful person that you desire to be long before you even finish the 30 day devotional.