Striving toward God

Over the last week, I have been reading the book Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools and wanted to use the devotions this week to share some things I have learned from it. (I highly suggest you grab a copy of this book and read it on your own!)

Prayer has always been a spiritual discipline I struggle with. I am an impatient fixer, which makes prayer hard. I would rather get to work than wait for God. I quickly assume being productive is more fruitful than prayer.

In addition to that, I struggle to slow down and create space to pray. If I am honest, I spend most of my day ignoring God completely as I focus on the urgent and important things in life.

Prayer is hard for me (and I assume for many of you too). I bet if you were honest, you wish you prayed more, were better at prayer, and felt confident you were doing it right. I bet you battle the thoughts in your head that prayer is a waste of time, a skill you don’t have, or something that is not going to change anything anyway.

Let me offer some words from the book that have helped me in my journey of prayer over the last few weeks:

“By praying we learn to pray.” — Richard Foster

The only way to get better is to practice. Just like with golf, sewing, or reading, the best way to improve is to practice. Sure, reading books, watching YouTube videos, or talking about it may help some, but eventually you need to swing the club, thread the needle, or make time to read. Prayer is the same. We grow our muscle of prayer by praying!

“If you want a life of prayer, the way to get it is by praying.” - Thomas Merton

Did you agree that you wish you prayed more? Well, start praying more. I am confident that if you pray more today, you will think about prayer more tomorrow (and hopefully actually pray more too). A life of prayer is created by days of praying more!

“Pray as you can, and don’t try to pray as you can’t.” - Dom John Chapman

We all compare ourselves to others and assume we come up short. That is awesome if someone can pray for an hour straight. I am not sure I can. But I can pray for 5 minutes straight. Pray as you can, not as you can’t. Don’t set goals you will fail. Set goals you can achieve and adjust as you go.

Find the ways you can pray, then pray in those ways.
Find the places you can pray, then pray in those places.
Find the times you can pray, then pray at those times.

“Before your head hits the pillow tonight, spend 5 intentional minutes praying.”