It is amazing how prayer can reach God, even without us uttering it first.
These past few weeks, I have been skipping prayers. Things have started cluttering around work, home, church, and personal thoughts. As I plan to set aside 930pm for my devotions, I often end up in front of the TV wanting to get out of my head momentarily. "I'll read my bible before I go to sleep", I said to myself. As the clock strikes 11pm . . 1130pm . . bedtime! "Uhh maybe I'll read tomorrow and just pray to God instead" . . And as I lay on my bed . . "Zzzzz". . . waaah :(( I then usually pray when I wake up =Z
Earlier this morning at the office, I said to myself that I will pray to God when I get home, asking Him for forgiveness and for the power to consistently prioritize Him despite of my tasks. As I get on my e-mails after a while, I received a timely reminder that amazed me!
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Finding Time for Prayer
A: It takes time to communicate with anyone, including God. There's no way around it. It's a mistake, though, to think of time spent in prayer as time that could have been better used to get other things done, because if you take time to pray, you'll be able to get a lot more done than you would otherwise. It's an investment, but once you start reaping the benefits, you'll wonder how you ever managed without it. Here are a few tips to help get you started:
Make a conscious effort. Like forming any new habit, this will take consistent determination. In time, though, you'll find that you're remembering to pray more, and forgetting to less.
Make prayer a priority. You always have time for the things you consider most important.
Set aside specific times in your daily routine. If you wait till everything else is taken care of, it will never happen. If you find that one time of day doesn't work well for you, try another. If you miss your appointed times one day, don't give up! Try again the next day.
Set attainable goals. It's not how long you pray that counts, but how earnest and sincere you are and how much you believe your prayers will be answered.
Take advantage of spare moments. You can pray during a coffee break, when stuck in traffic, while waiting for an appointment, while cooking, while taking a shower, while waiting for the baby to drift off to sleep, while walking the dog—almost any time, really.
Pray before starting each new task. "In all your ways acknowledge [God], and He shall direct your paths."1 In many cases, a prayer of only a sentence or two is all it takes.
Pray at the first sign of trouble. Ask for clarity of thought, composure, strength, inspiration, or answers—whatever you need at the moment—and God will give it.2
You don't have to be on your knees, praying frantically for God to hear you. Prayer is something you can and should be doing all the time, no matter what else you're doing—like thinking on your feet. If you pray as you go about whatever it is you're doing and ask God for wisdom, He will give it to you.4—David Brandt Berg
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1. Proverbs 3:6
2. Matthew 7:7
3. 1 Thessalonians 5:17
4. James 1:5
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Isn't that amazing?! Do you feel goosebumps everytime you realize that God has been speaking to you through random things and what's more amazing is even before you ask for it! That's what I felt. I'm in awe once again of how wonderful and gracious our God is! He reminded me how prayer is important and I know He has forgiven me. He's calling me back and I'm so thankful of His everlasting mercy and for the tips on how to sustain a prayerful habit! :p Indeed, the task ahead of me, is never as great as the power behind me.. :)Let us pray for one another to continually live a healthy and prayerful life, every moment we can find. To end with, I have 4 words for all of you:
A - Always
S - Say
A - A
P - Prayer
