DEVOTE: Give ALL or a LARGE part of one’s TIME or resources.
If you were to ask me yesterday if I was devoted to prayer I would’ve said with excitement, “YES!!!” But, before I shared this scripture with you I decided to dig into what the word DEVOTE really means. My balloon deflated just a little bit as I read the definition and I had to do a quick self check. Do I give ALL or a LARGE part of my day to prayer?
Every season of life requires a different PLAN of action to be intentional about our prayer life. What worked last year may not work this year, and that’s ok! Don’t beat yourself up! It just means it’s time to make a change. I find hope in the fact that the only way to fail at praying is by NOT doing it. We spend more time planning our weekends than we do our prayer life and we wonder why we don’t see prayers answered or situations changing.
Years ago I went on a quest to learn how to be intentional with my prayer life. I by no means have this all figured out, but I learned that lack of TIME was the number one obstacle. I am going to share with you some different ways I have learned to not let the craziness of our busy schedule be my excuse.
These are 5 ways to incorporate prayer throughout your day:
- Write a family scripture verse on a post it and stick it to your bathroom mirror. It will remind you to pray the scripture over your family while going through your morning routine. If you don’t already have a family verse I so encourage you to choose one! When our oldest was born I was doing a study that walked us through this. We choose Romans 12:2. It has been fun to share why we choose this verse with our children and encourage them to memorize it with us.
- First 5 minutes of your day use this weekly prayer sheet to intentional pray. I have shared before here on the blog how I use this tool to pray for our sports teams. I also add any prayer request to it so I have no problems remembering who and what I should pray for. Having them planned on specific days helps me BIG TIME! I have had the same sheet for almost a year now and it is SO fun to open it and see all the answered prayers. I have tried many different ways and this by far has been my favorite. https://youplayipray.com/game-changer/weekly-prayer-schedule/ …. I am pretty much just begging you to try it!
- Ok this may seem silly, BUT it totally worked for me so I had to add it to the list. There was a season where my commute to and from the stadium Brian was playing at was SO long and had WAY too many red lights. One day I decided instead of being so negative about each light I would pray for someone different at every red light. Total perspective changer and the drive started to be my favorite part of the day. I now live in a small town that has one red light LOL! SOOO hints why the prayer sheet is now my best friend!
- I have shared before the Super Book app I use in the mornings to pray with our children. Our children are 11, 9, and 5 and it is still working perfectly for us to start our day. There is a daily scripture that my older two take turns reading. We then discuss it for a few minutes and use it as our daily prayer. This is why my kids are so awesome… just kidding! They are far from perfect just like their mom, but sending them off into their day after hearing a nugget of TRUTH always brings me peace! We do all this on our short seven minute drive to school. http://ng.superbook.cbn.com/app
- LAUNDRY… the endless piles! I will never stop being shocked by just how much laundry one family can produce. I read an article one day where the author shared how she prays for each one of her family members while she is folding their clothes! Love this so much! Perfect way to pray for our family from head to toe hehe! I have to admit I don’t do this every time, but gosh I should! Maybe I would start to love laundry.
I hope some of these help you! The goal is to have a plan that works with your day. The more you pray the more you will desire to spend your time with Him. Your plan will grow with you.