A:

How do I keep from being too busy to pray? The short answer is I don’t. Often my mind works quicker in the fray. So I’ve invited God into my busy-ness and He has coached me into spending time with Him.

TYPES OF PRAYERS

Quick Prayers

The kind you can work into all kinds of busy, like when I was a young mom. I would pray out loud and let the kids overhear me talking to God, asking Him for help. They actually understood better than an adult and responded positively to being included in my prayer.

Quick prayers can be prayed while you are talking. Like when you have the privilege of witnessing to someone and have absolutely no idea where to go next. God has given us minds that can plug into heaven asking for help at the same time we are talking. Scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit will interpret these “Help” prayers for us.

5 Minute Prayers

Each morning, I take five minutes and ask for help for that day. These prayers are straight from the heart, which God loves. I began to understand the  ammunition I had against problems. Praying actually squeezed out worrying. Imagine that. It also gave me the realization that God is intensely interested in my life. This statement by E. M. Bounds stopped me cold: “God shapes the world by prayer. Prayers are deathless. They outlive the lives of those who utter them.”    

Longer Prayers

I also needed to ask God what and whom He wanted me to pray for. The first time I did this, I left a message on a woman’s answering machine. I told her God had brought her to mind while I was praying and wondered if there was something specific I should be praying for. She called and thanked me through her tears for leaving the message. She had been going through a very spiritually dry time. When she learned that God had brought her to my mind right then, her faith was multiplied.

God can literally shape the world as we pray for each other. Martin Luther said he spent an hour a day in prayer unless he had a very busy day and then he took three hours in prayer. The busier we are, the more we need it!

SUGGESTIONS FOR CONVERSING WITH GOD

Years ago a mentor modeled “First, we pray,” demonstrating Jesus’ pattern of living. I can’t recall a single time of challenge – or joy – that didn’t start with talking and listening to God about the issue at hand.

I equate prayer, regardless of how busy life is, to one of my favorite activities: eating. Eating sustains health, is required over and over again, and occurs in a variety of places and ways. Key to eating? Eat.

In light of that metaphor, here are some suggestions for conversing with God:

• Develop a mindset of constant prayer. Pray for those you don’t know; the guy in the car next to you and the checker at the grocery store.
• Don’t get out of bed without a “good morning” to your King.
• Keep a prayer journal. Mine’s messy, has emails in it, written prayers, and names God’s given me, but it’s all in one place.
• Regularly take several time away to pray. Bring a hymnal, the Word, and a pen.
• Pray Scripture as it pertains to specific situations and people.
• Be still. Stop talking and listen.
• Set up a regular phone prayer times with others.
• Pause conversation with another over an issue and pray aloud with the Lord.
• Use visual reminders: a lit candle reminds us of His very presence.

~ By Rita Hanon, Broom Tree Ministries