A Praying Life (Chapters 5-8)

I am thankful for the mentorship of this book on prayer! One thing I have learned the last few weeks is that preaching on the topic of prayer does not guarantee to improve one’s prayer life. You can talk about prayer and not pray. You can say the Lord’s prayer without praying the Lord’s prayer.  I saw an online cohort opportunity that goes along with this specific book (link here). I may  sign up for the Praying Life Cohort for Pastors.

Back to blogging through this book!

Chapter 5 (Spending Time With Your Father)

Jesus could have multi-tasked but instead He prayed alone all the time because he valued quality time with His Father. You can’t build a deep relationship with sound bites. Quality time is needed!

7 simple suggestions for prayer:
1- Go to bed- you can’t get up early if you don’t go to bed
2- Get up- praying in bed does not work
3- Get awake- coffee or shower?
4- Get a quiet place- somewhere you will not be interrupted
5- Get comfortable- does not have to be on your knees
6- Get going- start with a goal of 5 min.
7- Keep going- consistency is more important than length

Chapter 6 (Learning To Be Helpless)

Prayer mirrors the Gospel. We can’t do life on our own.

Someone once asked Edith Schaeffer “Who is the greatest Christian woman alive?” 
She responded saying, “We don’t know her name. She is dying of cancer somewhere in a hospital in India.”  (p. 56)

Miller confesses, “It took me 17 years to realize that I couldn’t parent on my own.”  He then says that he came to see that he did “his best parenting by prayer.”  (p. 59)

Chapter 7 (Crying Abba Continuously)

Jesus & Abba!
-His first recorded word was about His Father (Lk. 2)
-The first word of the Prodigal Son is Father (Lk. 15)
-The first word in the Lord’s prayer is Father (Mt. 6)
-The first word in the prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane is Father (Lk. 23)

“A praying life isn’t simply a morning prayer time; it is about slipping into prayer at odd hours of the day, not because we are disciplined but because we are in touch with our own poverty of spirit, realizing that we can’t even walk through a mall or our neighborhood without the help of Jesus.” (p. 68)

Chapter 8 (Bending Your Heart Too Your Father)

Like a Zoom link that someone sends us to talk. Anxiety is a door to prayer.

“When you stop trying to control your life and instead allow your anxieties and problems to bring you to God in prayer, you shift from worry to watching.” (p. 73)