Five steps to transforming your prayer life …

Which friend do you least enjoy spending time with?

It’s probably the same friend that you find yourself wanting to spend less time with: the friend who spends all your time together complaining about what’s wrong with his life.

Regardless of how much you may care about someone, listening to constant complaints that may, or may not, be real gets old. Even in the worst of situations, there comes a point where the complaining needs to end and a focus on changing things needs to begin.

So imagine how God might feel listening to us constantly complaining to Him!

Have you noticed that for most people, the majority of their prayer life focuses on reducing problems.

“God, would you do this …” “… would you change that …” “… would you deliver me from …” “… would you tweak this for me …” and on it goes. We spend most of our time praying about problems, real or imagined.

Yet, there’s a great deal more to life than the challenges we face. And there’s far more to our relationship with God than our hurling complaints or concerns at Him.

At least, there should be.

There can be.

Enriching and deepening our lives and relationship with God can come by transforming our prayer life into being something much more than a session of grumbling and pleading. Here are just five steps you can take toward transforming your prayer life:

1.Be conversational. If you’re God’s child, act like it. Talk to Him like you’re His son or daughter, and He’s your Father. Go beyond concerns to conversation. You can talk to God about anything, just like you would a spouse or friend. Take Him through your day and talk to Him about all the other things on your mind. Talk to Him when you’re out for a walk, or driving to work, or shopping at the grocery store. Be a whole person with Him, including Him in all the other aspects of your life beyond just your problems.

2. Be curious. Ask Him all the questions you have about life. Share with Him the things you wonder about, the questions you have on a host of subjects. Open up your curiosity to Him, tell him what it is that leaves you pondering. Let God partner with you in your curiosity about life.

3. Be creative. This has a double meaning. First, share with God your creativity. We’re often shy or fearful of revealing our greatest creativity to just anyone for fear they won’t understand or appreciate it. God loves it! Take time to share with Him your ideas, and the possibilities that run through your mind. Just as a parent cherishes hearing a child talk about all the clever and creative things they think of, and the parent responds with encouragement, God delights in your sharing with Him the creative ideas for life that you dare to think.

Second, be creative in your approach to prayer. Prayer doesn’t always have to be something done secretly in your “prayer closest.” It can part of your exercise routine, it can be the central part of getting outside and enjoying nature, it can be a sit down discussion, or something you write out in a journal. Be creative about talking to God in a variety of settings and ways. By doing so, you’ll find you will eventually ease into the biblical admonition to “pray without ceasing.”

4. Be compassionate. Make time to have a time for prayer focused on praying only for the needs of others. Come before God with a heart full of love and concern for other people, and pour out your requests on their behalf. Don’t make this a time about yourself, save your personal requests for some other time with God.

5. Celebrate! Some of the greatest experiences I’ve had with God have been times when my prayer was only a time of celebrating God! Set aside time to worship, praise and adore God without raising a single request for yourself or others. Make this a time that is all about you expressing your love and adoration for Him. Times like this can be some of the deepest moments of truly communing with God.

No one cares about your problems or needs as much, or more, than God. But your time with Him needs to be about more than you making requests. And your relationship with Him, as with any relationship, needs to be broader and more multi-faceted than just focused on your problems.

Try building these five additional elements into your prayer time and see if they don’t transform your prayer life and enrich your relationship with God.

Scotty