Flexing your prayer muscle
“Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.” [Colossians 4: 2]
Right, ladies. This is going to be a very practical, short and sweet one. I sometimes get people asking me, “how do you get to a place where you can pray for so long? “ Honestly, I wish I could say I have the answer to that one - I myself am still in full-on struggle mode! The one thing I can say however is that I am learning that there is a method to it all.
Think of it as going to the gym, right? No workout, no abs. No Chloe Ting workout, no six pack! Likewise, our spiritual muscles must be stretched if we are to see the kind of growth we long for. To be very transparent, depending on who is asking and why, this question does make me raise my eyebrows somewhat as it sounds like it’s more focused on the length of time ‘clocked’ in the prayer closet rather than the quality of the prayer. I would say hands down the latter wins. I can only assume that when people ask these type of questions, it is because they long to experience what it’s like to soak in God’s presence for hours, completely uninterrupted and connecting with the Source.
As I said, it’s a learning curve for all of us. Let each woman work out her own salvation, truly, however I have found that in my quest to go deeper in my prayer life and my walk with God, a few things have worked. I’ve summarised them in a pocket crib sheet below, in the hope that they’ll be of some use.
Flex your prayer muscle Crib Sheet
Partner with the Holy Spirit - ALWAYS AND FOREVER ! He is truly the greatest intercessor. Ask God to help you strengthen your prayer life. Make it a serious prayer point if you’re struggling and trust that He will come through for you.
Join corporate prayers at church or as part of fellowships. They tend to go on for longer than an hour (particularly if you’re part of an African church, you know what’s up!) which should help build you up.
Write down your scriptural prayers and consolidate them in one place : a prayer box, a journal, a beautiful shoe box. That way, you can take out a bunch of them and read them in one go.
Speak in tongues. We experience a separation of spirit from soul as we speak in tongues. Because we know not what we are saying, our mind tends to disengage fairly rapidly, leaving us to enjoy that precious time with our Father.
Be intentional. Have set days when you purpose to go deeper in prayer : that could be one day a week which is fairly achievable for most of us.
So there you have it; 5 quick steps to strengthen your prayer life. Hit that spiritual gym today ladies, work out that prayer muscle. First start with ten minutes, build up to twenty and so on and so forth. Before you know it, an hour won’t be long enough. Focus on the quality of your prayer, not babbling on mindlessly like the Pharisees and Sadducees. Otherwise to be very honest, you might as well call it a night and go to bed!
I hope we all find encouragement in this as we hit the start button on the treadmill !
Stay blessed, X