IF YOU SUCK AT PRAYING, HERE’S 5 IDEAS TO GET YOU WOKE 💪
‘Keep actively watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” ‘ Matthew 26:41
Last year I took some time off from cycling. I told myself, “let your body recover a little bit”. Yah, it was nice to recover — however, when I got back on the bike, I felt like I lost all my cycling gains. I started back riding half the distance — it sucked. Many of you may be feeling the same now that your local gyms are closed. Same idea — you just miss out on wearing cycling stretchy pants. 😚
Your mind is just like your body. It’s a muscle you can train and get better at. — Rose Namajunas
When I first started writing these daily devotionals, it was TOUGH. I didn’t know what I would say and it took more work to remember stories that would apply. You know how it is. It’s like when you pick up your Bible after awhile — the pages are boring AF and NO PICTURES. Just text on page — WTF!
I’d say most of us would like to read our Bibles more or pray more. The problem is — your muscles are weak AF. The other issue is, similar to many not grasping the power of communion (see yesterday’s blog), we don’t fully fathom the power of prayer.
This verse in Matthew is classic Jesus. He’s in the garden praying and thinking about how He is going to get the 💩 kicked out of Him. He is literally giving up his life — for ours. He’s allowing lowly humans to utterly disrespect and walk all over Him — for the sake of your f’n soul. A standard day for the Messiah.
So — he goes to pray. He’s about to flex those prayer muscles so that the peace that passes all understanding guards His heart and His mind. And, just like there is growth in your muscles when you clang and bang — there is growth when you pray.
The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That’s what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they’ll go through the pain no matter what happens. — Arnold Schwarzenegger
I know and you know — we all need to pray more. I want to include a bit from John Piper on a few reasons WHY prayer should be a DAILY F’N HABIT.
“Be a vigilant man. Don’t be a lazy man. Don’t be a slacker. Get up. Do your work. Come home. Do your work. Get a vision. Be intentional. Don’t sleep your life away. If you’re lazy, kill it. Put it to death. It is remarkable to me here that when he says, “The flesh is weak and the spirit is willing,” he’s not mainly talking about sex. He’s talking about weariness. You’re just too tired to read your Bible, too tired to lead the family in any kind of moral enterprise, too tired to go to church, too tired to talk to anybody. You just think to yourself, “I just want to go home and sit.”
You will be a sitting duck for the Devil if you yield to that kind of lifestyle.”
The way that I’ve made my Bible reading more real to me has been through this — the act of writing and studying a daily Bible verse. Writing has been something I’ve been trying to form a habit with for years. I could never seem to do it. But, when I paired it with my Bible reading — it’s now ESSENTIAL to my day.
If you used to pray or read your Bible — get back to it. At first, it sucks, but the muscle is still there. And, your life is too valuable not to include the very thing Jesus did so much on Earth.
Repetition of the same thought or physical action develops into a habit which, repeated frequently enough, becomes an automatic reflex. — Norman Vincent Peale
Here’s 5 ideas to get your prayer game woke AF.
1. Start small. Start with 5 minutes a day. One of my secret tricks on this is praying in my shower.
2. Write a list of who you are praying for. Write the vision down and make it plain. Much easier to pray when you have a list. I laminate my list and bring it into the shower.
3. Replace a habit. I used to never find time to pray until I replaced a habit. Now, when I drive to work, instead of listening to music — I pray. Easy win.
4. Set alarms. Pastor Kevin Goff gave me this idea when he told me what he did to keep his mind renewed. He set 3 alarms a day to keep his mind on God’s Word. Easy, practical idea.
5. Change your music. I used to listen to a lot of hip-hop. I love hip-hop . The problem I found with hip-hop was that it didn’t CAUSE me to WANT to pray. Be careful what words you have bombarding your soul. Put the songs around you that get you excited to pray and change the world.
Let’s pray:
Jesus, I want to be alert on this Earth. I want to know things before they happen. I want to be prepared to fight this battle. My prayer muscles may be weak -but I know you can strengthen them. Give me ideas to form better habits today. Amen.
