PHILIPPIANS 4:6
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
This verse is especially encouraging to the Christian ADDer who struggles with prayer and quiet time. We find it a challenge to believe that we’re growing in our faith. A lot of what we’re taught to do to build our relationship in Christ is difficult for the attention-deficient believer – the reading, quieting of the mind, journaling, and devotions.
When I close my eyes and pray, I struggle because my mind jumps around to the thoughts and tasks of the day. My heart wants an intimate time with God, but when I try to focus in, it’s an incredible battle. I often end my prayer time more frustrated than when I started. And that prevents my prayer times from even happening.
Most Christians ADDers probably don’t pray. I pray now more than I have in the past, but it will never be enough.
Bill Hybels makes an interesting point in his book Too Busy Not to Pray. He says that many people don’t see answered prayers only for the simple fact that they don’t pray.
If we don’t ask, we can’t expect to see God more active in our lives. But even if you’re not seeing it, God is active in your life. The Bible says that God desires to meet our needs. He’s doing it every day. We may write it off as luck or coincidence, but it’s really God’s hand moving in our hearts. And prayer can bring about God’s movement even more.
Philippians 4:6 is an invitation to let go of our anxieties. We have an open connection to God, through Jesus. God has a handle on your need, no matter how big or small.
Here are three simple tips that have helped build up my prayer life:
1. Pray through exercise.
When I go to the gym to put in my 45 minutes on the elliptical, I write my prayer requests on my arm with a marker. Physical activity releases focusing chemicals into the brain, so during that activity, I can focus on prayer. It’s like cardio for my heart and spirit all at once.
2. Write it down.
Out of these tips, I do this the most. I write prayers on a scrap pieces of paper and date them. When I write, my mind focuses on what I’m writing. I don’t worry about spelling or neatness because I don’t think God worries about it either. I know I’m not the first to come up with that idea
When I’m finished with the scrap pieces, I put them in my prayer box, which sounds like a gold, ornate treasure, but is actually a cheap, decorative box from a craft store. It’s fun to go back and look at prayers from the past and see how God answered them.
3. High-tech prayer journaling
For the tech-savvy Christian, you can create a prayer folder on your computer. Update the files with all of your prayers. It’s a great way to start recording your prayer life. And you might want to turn off that red squiggly line that tells you that you misspelled something. It’s just distracting.
Ultimately, we pray to God because He is God – He can do anything. And it’s not only about what He can give us (blessing, safety, healing), but what He can take from us (worry, anxiety, fear), which will leave us with His peace which transcends all understanding. That’s one thing worth anxiously (in a good way) wanting.
this is so awesome. your videos are so inspiring, they reallly are. i watched a video of one of your speeches to a college in my class, and i was really awakened. As i was listening to you speak, there was something about it, like you were sending a different message, not about how your different, but about how people really are special. How god actually cares for every one of us. And before i saw your video, i prayed so much for god to be revealing in my school life, and there is was. When you were “chalking”, haha, there were Christian songs playing in the background, and i just wanted to stand up in the middle of my class room and just praise god. I thank god for you, even though i have no clue who you are. This post has helped me so much, it has been so hard for me to pray, to set time away for god. thats my most complicated thing with my walk with Christ. i can never seem to get it right, or ever start it. It’s almost like i have lost hope, but i haven’t. I cry when i think about it because i’m breaking the lords heart, but i still don’t change. it’s hard to break habits, or even to have passion. i thank you for posting this. i really needed. thanks for your word.