Layering Prayer Into Your Day

Back to this idea of layering-—consciously adding prayer, Bible reading and time spent with God in small bits and pieces throughout the day until these times become ingrained habits, until they are part of the normal pattern of our days.

When I first began my layering experiment, I decided to use various things I do every day as “prayer reminders,” things that would prompt me to pray here and there for a minute or two. I thought this was a rather feeble attempt to pray without ceasing but I actually heard Charles Zimmerman, a professor at Biblical Seminary, make this very same suggestion during a sermon recently. Now that I have heard a seminary professor recommend it, I feel pretty good about it! Zimmerman called these things “prayer prompts.” They add no “extra” time to your daily schedule, but they get you praying. The following are some of his suggestions and some of mine.

--Hit alarm button. Ask God to direct you throughout the day. Specifically mention anything you are worried about that you (or someone you love) will face during the day.

--Take shower. Ask God to cleanse you from the inside out. Thank Him for your health and pray about any specific health concerns.

--Eat breakfast. Thank God for His daily provision. Ask Him to continue meeting your physical needs throughout the day.

--Read newspaper. Ask God to work His will on earth. Pray quickly about things that are worrying you in the news—the fear of e. coli, your kids getting too involved in My Space, an election, whatever.

--Get kids out the door to school. Pray for their spiritual and physical safety and any specific concerns you have.

--Arrive at work. Ask God to bless your work, direct your ways and help your attitude.

You get the idea. Modify these suggestions to fit your daily routine and remember, these are just quick shots of prayer raised to God. They don’t require a big block of time which you can’t find or maintain on a regular basis. The whole point is that you already do all the rest of this stuff on a regular basis so if you weave prayer into them you have a chance of praying more regularly. After awhile, you’ll find that prayer is becoming an automatic response. In other words, you'll find you are becoming a person of prayer.

A Layered Approach to Spiritual Growth

What is my obsession with habits anyway? I’ll tell you how it came about. A few years ago I resolved for about the two hundredth time to make God and my spiritual growth a priority. I had failed miserably at this in the past, and I knew it was because my ideas were always too “big,” too unrealistic and didn’t fit well with the other things going on in my life. I would think ambitious things like, “I’m going to get up an hour early and study the Bible,” but at the time I was a working mom with toddlers and totally exhausted in the mornings. On top of that, because they were toddlers, my kids would hear me when I got up and immediately want to get up themselves…needless to say, no more quiet time at my house! I could go on and on about failed attempts at starting prayer journals, unread Christian books collecting dust on my night table, etc.

I decided that I needed to apply what I thought of as a “layering” approach: a couple Bible verses here, a quick prayer there, a sermon on tape during my commute, etc. I thought I’d add a bit more each month and that eventually these efforts might build on one another and amount to something—and, believe it or not, they did! Bible reading times got a little longer and I felt myself more eager to read as time went by. I found myself praying more frequently throughout the day, able to understand what Paul meant about praying without ceasing (not actually going that far myself, but at least understanding that such a feat might be possible and not thinking that Paul was totally insane and obviously didn't have kids or a normal job!) The point is, it all started with tiny steps that I could do here and there despite my busy schedule--little layers I could build into my existing day.

As I layered on more learning and more times with God, I realized that it helped when I turned certain layers into habits. I know the word “habits” sounds like the big, overly ambitious ideas that didn’t work for me in the first place, but I’m talking about really small habits, like “I pray for three minutes as I drive to pick up my son from sports practice. I do not turn on the radio,” or “I subscribe to an email devotional and make sure I read it before I start any other work on my computer.” When I did this I discovered that times with God or thinking about God were happening naturally and on “auto-pilot” throughout the day. They no longer took tremendous effort. They no longer had to be written on a “to-do” list in order for me to remember to do them. And of course, God was doing His work during this time period, meeting me more than halfway and growing my efforts. My baby steps and habits were really just acts of opening up more channels to Him, allowing Him more times to speak to me.

If you think this approach would work for you, think about a few little things you can do within your existing schedule—a few little habits you can establish—that will help you turn your thoughts more frequently toward God throughout the day. Over the next week or so, I’ll offer some more ideas that worked for me. And feel free to post comments on anything that has worked for you.

Time to Check Our Habits!

Well, I guess I am finally forced to admit that summer is over. Things are settling down into a Fall routine. The back-to-school clothes and supplies have been bought, the kids’ bus schedule has begun to normalize, and we’ve gotten used to the alarm going off at the outrageously early hour now necessary since my daughter started high school. (Why is it that high schools start earlier than elementary schools?? The elementary-age kids have been up for hours trying to find something to do while the high schoolers straggle out to the bus half-dead.)

Even if you don’t have school age kids, Fall usually means a change in routine—whether you’re beginning to put on the push toward the end of the fiscal year, taking on that home improvement project that didn't get done last Spring, or dealing with the boss who has come back from vacation all charged up with new ideas for you to implement. Or maybe you're in school or taking a night course. Whatever the change in routine—even a subtle one--it is an important time to review our habits towards God. If we don’t take time to readjust our spiritual habits to the new schedules forced upon us, it’s amazingly easy to let spiritual priorities slide. We’re liable to wake up around New Year’s thinking, “I wonder why I never seem to follow through on my New Year’s resolutions to grow spiritually? Guess I’ll just resolve for the tenth year in a row to start having a Quiet Time.”

I think this constant review as circumstances change around us is in some sense what God means in the New Testament when He tells us to be alert or what He meant in the Old Testament when He frequently told His people to “Consider your ways.” He is saying, “Hey, stay awake to what’s going on in your life. Don’t let My things slide.”

Look at the September habits in the sidebar. For those of you who read by email, the habits are:
--Praying for three minutes three times a day
--Reading the New Testament for 7-8 minutes a day
--Reading the Old Testament for 2 minutes a day
--Turning off as much extraneous noise as possible throughout the day

How are you doing with these? Are your times with God getting squeezed out by the busy-ness of Fall? Did some of your habits (like mine) slip during the lazy days of summer and you need to reestablish them? Just take a couple minutes to think about your new schedule, commitments, and pressures and figure out how to keep your times with God a priority.