Tools for a Life of Prayer: Scheduling Time for Prayer

I’m going to say something fairly obvious, but super important: If you want to develop an actual prayer life, make time in your schedule to actually pray.

It’s the easiest thing in the world to just rush through life dominated by the “tyranny of the urgent” – giving priority to whatever pressing need or perceived need happens to be in front of you. That may be a work or school task, a family or relational obligation, or even simply, “I’m tired and what I need to do right now is watch five hours of Netflix.”

When we live like that, our times of prayer usually get crammed in around the edges, during car rides and in the shower, and at the end of the day, we realise we never gave God a real block of focussed attention.

It’s like when friends say “Let’s do coffee sometime!” and then “sometime” never comes because no one ever actually put it on the calendar. You want to be friends, and you certainly meant to do coffee… but at some point, someone has to actually initiate a time and a place or else it remains just a good intention, choked out by the million other demands on your time and attention.

There’s an old story that illustrates this point very well:

A professor of philosophy stood before his class with some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly he picked up a large empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks about two inches in diameter. He then asked the students if the jar was full.

They agreed that it was full.

So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly and watched as the pebbles rolled into the open areas between the rocks. The professor then asked the students again if the jar was full.

They chuckled and agreed that it was indeed full this time.

The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. The sand filled the remaining open areas of the jar.

“Now,” said the professor, “I want you to recognize that this jar signifies your life. The rocks are the truly important things, such as family, health and relationships. If all else was lost and only the rocks remained, your life would still be meaningful. The pebbles are the other things that matter in your life, such as work or school. The sand signifies the remaining ‘small stuff’ and material possessions. If you put sand into the jar first, there is no room for the rocks or the pebbles. The same can be applied to your lives. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are truly important.

(I borrowed this version from a short article by Julie Isphording, but it appears all over the internet in various forms.)

To me, the rocks are the core things I am called to: my relationship with God, growing in the callings and gifts He has given me, stewarding my relationships, etc. My default is usually to fill my jar with pebbles and sand, and over the months, I look back and wonder where my rocks went! Designated prayer time is usually the first rock to go, if we’re being honest. In fact, sometimes I think that God set me in the house of prayer so that I would be “forced” to talk to Him more!

If having an actual prayer life is a value to you, it’s vital to schedule it like an immovable boulder in your daily routine.

If having an actual prayer life is a value to you, it's vital to schedule it like an immovable boulder in your daily routine.
Even before I joined the house of prayer, the times my relationship with God was the strongest was when I had daily times set apart to meet with Him. For a while, it was every morning before class in my university prayer chapel. At home, it was often late at night after the rest of the family was in bed. I would sit on the floor with a mug of tea and my Bible and journal, and it was the highlight of my day.

Now, my scheduled times are mostly during my sacred trust times in the prayer room. I love the accountability and community of being part of a prayer room culture corporately.

Whatever it looks like for you, I highly encourage you to put those times in your schedule and treat it like an actual appointment. Give yourself enough time to slow down and not feel rushed, where you can quiet your mind and connect with the Holy Spirit. Keep that time sacred. Worship. Read a few Bible chapters, or maybe just one. Pray through a simple prayer list. As you develop a history of meeting Him in that secret place, it will become precious to you, and you’ll look forward to it and cherish those times with Him.

(Important note: To be realistic, you probably will not keep your schedule 100% of the time–but I guarantee that if you set a goal, you will keep it MORE than you would without a goal at all. Even keeping 70% or 80% of your prayer times is way better than not even trying and keeping 0%.)

Do you have a regular prayer schedule? What times work for you? Tell me in the comments!

3 Truths That Keep Me Coming Back to the Prayer Room

…And None of Them Are Actually About Me.

I’m five years into this prayer room lifestyle now. And to be honest, every day is not sunshine and rainbows and oceans of glory. Motivation is sorely lacking sometimes. So when I’m not feeling it, here are the core truths that keep me coming back. (You’ll notice that none of them are really about me. That’s because the house of prayer is primarily something GOD established for GOD, and any blessing I get is just a bonus.)

1. Jesus is worthy.

No matter how I feel, Jesus is still the name above every other name and the angels are still singing “Holy, holy, holy… Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.” (Revelation 4:8, 5:12). I actually believe that the greatest injustice in the earth is that Jesus does not get the worship that He is due from every heart worldwide. I can’t change that singlehandedly overnight, but I can do my best to make sure He gets everything He deserves from my life.

2. Jesus wants to talk to me more than I want to talk to Him.

I am so dull of heart sometimes. Like, a lot of times. My flesh can so easily convince me on that I’m okay without having a real conversation with God that day. That’s probably the biggest lie my flesh tells me: “You’re fine. It’s okay. It doesn’t matter.” And so I zone out in the prayer room, or choose to endlessly scroll through Facebook at home. But the truth is that Jesus wants to talk to me way more than I want to talk to Him. Some days the only thing that can get me out of bed to go to the prayer room is the fact that Jesus says “Let Me see your face, let Me hear your voice.” (Song of Solomon 2:14) He really wants to talk with me, and He misses that connection time when I’m not there. I may feel like I’m fine if I miss out for a day, but how dare I deprive Jesus of something He so earnestly desires.

3. This is part of a big, big story.

The house of prayer — corporate, sustained gatherings specifically focussed on worship and intercession, especially 24/7 — has been on God’s heart for a long, long time, to the point that the first thing He did in establishing a nation for himself was to establish the house of prayer (the tabernacle of Moses). David took this idea even further in his tabernacle model, and God promised to re-establish David’s tabernacle in the final generation. (Amos 9:11) The Church will be a praying, singing, lovesick Bride that functions as a house of prayer and partners with God to push back the darkness, bring forth revival, and usher in the return of Jesus. My getting out of bed to go to the prayer room is literally part of God’s strategy to prepare the earth for the second coming. It doesn’t get much more epic than that.

 

Three Reasons I Love Getting Rid of Stuff

Since I’m moving to Texas in January, I’ve been trying to minimise the amount of STUFF in my life. I’ve given away dozens of bags of clothes, books, fabric, trinkets, etc, and thrown away quite a few bags as well, and I actually find it quite refreshing.
Here are three things I tell myself as I’m getting rid of stuff:

1. If it doesn’t bless me, it doesn’t belong in my home.

I’m pretty sure this statement is paraphrased from something I read in a FLYlady book of my mom’s years ago. It easily applies to the clothes I never wear and books I never plan to read, but it also helps me sort through memorabilia I kept because I felt I “should.” Of course I don’t want to get rid of everything that holds a memory! But not all memories are good ones, and I should never feel obligated to keep a thing just because it’s tied to a memory. The first time I put this principle to use was when I got rid of a soccer jersey from a year I didn’t really have fun on my team. I still remember the revelation of freedom I felt when I finally refused to be guilted into holding onto something that wasn’t blessing me!

Everything I own should “earn its keep” by adding value to my life–be that spiritual, emotional, intellectual, or practical. Even some things that once added value may eventually overstay their welcome. (There’s really no reason to stash a decade worth of birthday cards from everyone I’ve ever known!) If it doesn’t bless me, it doesn’t belong in my home.

2. I know who I am without all this stuff to remind me.

Another reason I often keep stuff is to remind myself that things happened and impacted my life. It’s as if I believe that all these old show tickets, event fliers, and crew t-shirts are puzzle pieces that add up to who I am today, and if I get rid of them, I’ll be losing a part of myself. But guess what – those experiences are part of me.

I don’t need the memorabilia to remember that they happened. I don’t need all my old character journals to remind me that I’m an actor. I don’t need all the little toys to remind me that I had a good childhood. Sure, there’s nothing wrong with saving some things, but I’m not betraying those parts of myself by letting go of the physical evidence. I think there was a time when I relied on all the evidence of my experiences to tell me who I was. I’ve grown and become so much more secure as a person, and I don’t need them anymore. I know who I am.

3. I’m freer to say “yes” when God calls me to travel.

This is the reason that has prompted my frequent donating sprees recently. I’ve moved so many times in the past six years, and every time I’ve managed to live for months or years out of just what I can fit in my car. It’s astonishing how little I “need” to live a full and happy life! When I own less stuff, I’m freer to be available and responsive to God’s call to move to Crestline, or Kansas City, or Dallas. If in the future God calls me again to move suddenly, I don’t want the amount of stuff I own to be any kind of hindrance to saying “yes.”

I’m far from a true minimalist, but I really do want to live unhindered by material possessions. I’ve been inspired by a number of books and blogs on the subject of minimalistic living, and if you’re looking for something to fuel your own motivations, I suggest you start with a few of the posts at Becoming Minimalist.