Activity One: Application to Your Life
Preparing to Pray
To make prayer a regular part of your day (or to strengthen your current prayer practice), review the “Preparing to Pray” activity in the Downloadable Guide to Prayer (pages 26-27). It is designed to assist you in developing a plan for your prayer:
Prayer Time: When Will You Pray?
Set aside a time for daily prayer. This is the single most important thing you can do. When we establish a regular routine for prayer, we will make sure that our prayer life is not done “on the run.” Ten minutes a day is a good start. Set aside a regular time: morning, noontime, before dinner, or before going to sleep at night.
Prayer Place: Where Will You Pray?
We can pray anywhere. We all find places that are special to us, that help us to pray. Jesus did give us wise advice, though, when he taught us to withdraw to our rooms to pray. A sacred space need not always be confined to inside your house or a church. Explore outdoor settings. Take a walk—in the morning, at lunch time, in the evening. If you drive to work, leave early and spend time with God, quietly sitting in the parking lot before going in or make every drive a unique time to meet with God by playing instrumental music as you pray.
Prayer Posture: How will I position myself for prayer?
If we can pray anywhere, we can also pray in any position. Sometimes we have to experiment to discover the prayer posture that works best for us: lying down, kneeling, sitting, or walking.
Prayer Mood: How will I relax myself for prayer?
The Lord instructs us to “be still and know that I am God.” We cannot pray well unless we slow down and create the proper mental climate. We must first relax. Creating a relaxed mood for prayer is the last preparation for praying—after we have made time, found a place, and assumed a comfortable position for our prayer. Here are three popular methods for relaxing before prayer: (1) awareness of our senses, (2) breathing, and (3) listening.
Continuing Experiments in Prayer
Use the 16 Prayer Practices in the Downloadable Guide to Prayer to continue experimenting with prayer practices.
You might want to download one of the prayer apps suggested in #13. Try Pray As You Go (app or online at https://pray-as-you-go.org) as your daily pray time for several weeks as an experiment.
Activity Two: Application to Your Teaching or Ministry
Develop a practical project to engage your age group in learning about prayer and experiencing a variety of prayer practices. Use the prayer resources in the Downloadable Guide to assist you in designing your project. The reproducible Prayer Activities has over 20 prayer practices and experiences in a Word file to make it easy to cut and paste the activities into other documents or designs.
Your project can be a learning program, a prayer service, a video presentation with discussion, an experience of prayer practices, a retreat experience, and much more.
We have curated a list of “Prayer Resources” that you can use to design a project. The list with links can be found in Resources for this topic.
Closing Prayer
A Contemporary Lord’s Prayer
Abba in heaven,
your name is holy!
Your justice come,
your will be done,
on earth as in the heavens.
Fill us this day with all that we need.
Teach us to heal as you have healed us.
Bring us not to the test, but deliver us always from the power of evil.
You alone are God, and all belongs to you!
(Edward F. Gabriele, Gathered at the Table in Prayer and Song)