Creative Prayer Ideas for Personal Prayer – “If My People Pray”

When it comes to our relationship with Jesus, choosing to pray — to  be with Him — is often the greatest battle.

Pastor Randy has some fresh prayer ideas and suggestions to help you begin practicing prayer as relationship. We should first begin enjoying the times, however brief, the time that we spend and share  with God.

Prayer Ideas -  Action points for enhancing your personal prayer time

1. Pray whenever you think about.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can pray only at a certain times and in a certain places. Pray when you think about it. In your car, in a meeting, in bed when you can’t sleep, as you mow the lawn or wash dishes, or while brushing your teeth.

So learn to converse with Him all the time. When you think about praying,  that’s God talking.

The natural man or woman doesn’t desire prayer. If it’s on our minds to pray, it’s the Holy Spirit calling. Don’t put the King on hold! Answer His page, and hear what’s on His mind!

If you’re forgetting to pray for people you’ve promised to pray for, learn to pray when God puts it on your mind — when you think about it.

2. Pray about variety of things.

We talk about kids, schooling, the church, vacation plans, family members, music, bills, romance, TV programs, work, etc. We don’t try to talk about everything all in one sitting. We pace ourselves. Talking about this now, that later; this thing today, the other thing tomorrow.

Do the same with prayer. Don’t pray about the same things all the time, and don’t try to cover everything in one prayer. Vary your conversation. You can pray about the supervisor who gives you grief today, and save time for the missionaries tomorrow.

Pray different types of prayer. Try praying a prayer of praise without any petitions. Make no requests about anything. Put away the shopping list and just spend time praising God for who He is in your life.

Or sing your prayer to God. Paul admonishes us to “sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God”   Colosians 3:16. There are times when we pray by singing favorite praise hymns such as “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” or “I Love You, Lord.”   During sung prayers, I sometimes experience the presence of God more profoundly than when I’m at my “regular” prayers.

3. Pray without words.

You don’t always have to have something to say in order to be with God. I know this may seem odd to some, but sometimes it’s perfectly alright, “to be still and know that [He is] God” (Psalm 46:10).

Learn to “be still and know.” Quiet can be profound. And don’t feel like you “fail” if words escape you occasionally when you pray. Remember, there are times when “we do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will” (Romans 8:26, 27).

4. Keep your prayer time and Bible-study time separate.

This suggestion may get me in trouble, but it’s worth trying. . . It’s been my experience that when I bring my quarterlies, commentaries, and multiple translations of the Bible into my devotional time, I spend little time in prayer and much more time in study. And please don’t put this book down and start a rumor about Randy Maxwell’s campaign to eliminate Bible Study. . . I’m simply suggesting that we give each of these its own time.

Prayer is primarily meeting with God. Reading and studying during this time may not always be required. . . . Whether you’re just being quiet with Him or focusing on your own needs, you’re still meeting with Him. This is not a wasted time.

ChristianMomsCorner.com note:

My comment to Pastor Randy’s suggestion – Keep your prayer time and Bible-study time separate…

During my personal devotional time I always love to hold and read my Bible. I also read E.G.White’s Our Father’s Care – my favorite morning devotional. Every time I read my Bible I learn something new and I thank the Lord for that. I do talk about it with Him to what I just learn — it’s like a conversation starter. But there are at times when I sat down on the couch to start my personal morning devotional — I just like to sit down there and “be still.” After this “be still devotional” I’ve sensed that I never missed God’s presence.

Excerpts Source: Randy Maxwell, If My People Pray, pp. 105-110

If you are interested to get his book, you can find it here.

Previous blog: If My People Pray: Why Must We Pray

Creative Prayer Ideas:

• Creative Prayer Idea: Five-Finger Prayer
• “If My People Pray” – Too Bored to Pray?
• More Creative Prayer Ideas: Personal Prayer

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