Transforming Prayer Time

Many times, when we think of prayer, we think about a list of things that we want resolved or fixed in our life or the lives of those closest to us. It is a solemn and somber time to approach God and when addressed this way each and every time we pray, it eventually becomes a ritual or routine. As our prayer ritual develops, we find we spend less and less time praying. This happens because we learn how to get our needs out faster and the feeling and emotion that we may have initially felt when we first began to pray dwindles. How can we rekindle the spark and freshness in our prayer life and relationship with God?

1)      Share happiness and joy with God – God wants to know and be a part of everything that is important to you. That includes the things that make you happy and bring you great joy. By getting in the habit of sharing the positive things with God, not only do we shake our prayer routine up, but we are able to draw closer to Him just by the fact that we are sharing a different aspect of ourselves with Him.

2)      Express the more difficult emotions – God wants to know about the things that are in the deepest recesses of our hearts. Not only does he want to know about those things that we want resolved, but he wants to know exactly how we feel about those things, even when it is bad, ugly or we are wrong. I was once very afraid to express anger and frustration to God. I felt that I had no right to tell him that I felt what was happening to me was unfair or that I was upset about it. I falsely believed that the things that happened to me were as a result of behavior that I had done previously and that I was now being punished for. I did not feel it was my right to question authority. As I changed how I prayed, I ventured out and began to express emotions such as anger and frustration. What I found was that it was a very liberating experience and that God listened patiently to my tirades without judgment. He let me vent my feelings, which gave me a sense that I was indeed being heard and that I did not need to hide anything from him. Expressing those feelings openly to Him helped me to draw even closer to Him and my prayer life was impacted immensely and transformed forever.

3)      Learn to laugh with God – God has a sense of humor. This can be witnessed through some His creations on this earth as well as some of the things we experience in our life. His timing is uncanny and can break the cycle of tension, fear, or anxiety. However, this can only happen when we open our eyes, our ears, and our hearts and are receptive to it.

4)      Pray multiple times daily – I know most of us view this as very difficult to accomplish, with busy work and family schedules. However, if we redefine what prayer actually is we may be able to accomplish this easier. Prayer is a discussion with God and has no set time limit or format. It can be a simple “thank you” for a blessing God has given us or a statement like “God please help me get through this situation.” If we treat praying like a continuous open conversation with God, we will find that praying multiple times daily can be done. This in turn will enhance our relationship with Him as well as our spiritual well-being.

5)      Don’t be afraid to try new things – As stated above, there is no right or wrong way to pray. We need to experiment and try new things until we find something that is comfortable and works for us as individuals. God’s is just happy to have contact with and to share our lives with us.

6)      Realize that you will get what you put into prayer – We reap what we sow. If we go about prayer in a ritualistic and routine manner, it will become more about fulfilling an obligation rather than crafting a personal relationship with God. We need to cherish the time we spend with God and deeply invest in our relationship with Him.

By learning to develop new approaches to prayer, you not only reignite the spark in your relationship with God, but can find deeper meaning and purpose in your own life.