Today we are talking about how to be more consistent in prayer.  I must confess that,lately, I've gotten off my game a little bit in terms of my prayer life.  Life gets busy.  You’ve got all sorts of things going on, and before you know it, one or two days go by and you haven't spent consistent time with God in prayer.  So, I want to give you seven things you can do to be more consistent with prayer.

1 - Schedule It

What's so interesting is that we use our phones to schedule everything else except time with God which should be the most important thing on our schedule.  Notice that Mark 1:35 says that when it was very early in the morning, when it was still dark, Jesus got up and left the house and went off to a solitary place to pray.  So as difficult as it may be, I want to encourage you to pick a time in your schedule every day that you're going to be unhurried and uninterrupted and free from all distractions.

2 - Have a Prayer Partner

Now I must confess that this is an area where I have personally struggled.  But, if you can find someone that you can trust, that you can share your difficulties and your deepest secrets with, that you can commit to praying together every day or every week, essentially what you have is built-in accountability.  And this is great because when something is not coming natural in our lives, we need appointments, certain fixed things that are in our schedule that we have to do so that we can learn how to become more consistent and more disciplined.

3 - Don’t Feel Limited by Space

For whatever reason, some people feel like they cannot pray unless they're kneeling by their bed with their eyes closed.  I want to encourage you to take advantage of every single opportunity to pray.  If you're at the gym and you're working out, you can pray.  If you are a jogger, if you are a swimmer or if you are a housewife and you are cleaning up around the house or cooking or whatever it is, use that time.  Do not be limited by space.  The Bible says that we should pray without ceasing which means we should pray at all times and in all places (Ephesians 6:18, 1 Thessalonians 5:17).

4 - Don’t Feel Limited by Time

I heard someone say a long time ago, “I may not pray for very long, but I do not go very long without praying.”  Now if you are one of those people who spend one to two hours every day in prayer, well then, God bless you!  But, for the rest of us, many people feel like, “I cannot spend an hour every day in prayer, or even 15 or 20 minutes in unhurried, uninterrupted prayer.”  And they think “I might as well not pray at all.”  But what we must realize is that God is interested in hearing from us throughout the day.  Whenever we're dealing with bad attitudes at work or if we're stuck in traffic, we can pray.  Whenever we have temptations that come our way or we have difficult decisions to make, we can pray!

5 - Slip Away to Go and Pray

Jesus was a master at this.  The Bible says that Jesus would often withdraw himself and go to lonely places to pray.  I know you think you may be busy but none of us are busier than Jesus was.  He was discipling 12 men.  He was preaching.  He was followed by crowds.  Everywhere He went, people were pressing in and pulling on him with demands.  He was on the road.  He was traveling.  He was doing miracles.  He was healing people with all sorts of other things going on.  And whenever it became overwhelming, the Bible says that Jesus had to say, “Hold up!  Wait a minute!  Let me excuse myself.  Let me slip away so that I can pray and spend some time with God.”

6 - Don’t Limit Yourself to One Type of Prayer

In other words, be creative.  Switch it up.  There may be times you may need to start your day off and just say, "Lord, I blew it yesterday.  I need to confess my sins before you."  Or, maybe there are times when you know you need to go to God in worship.  Listen to music on the way to work and just worship God there.  Maybe other times, you just want to thank God for the things that He's done in your life because you are overwhelmed with a sense of joy and gratitude.  There may be other times when you need to pray for someone else.  Or finally, there are times when you may need to go to God to say, "Look, Lord this is what I'm trusting you to do in my life."  The key is to make sure prayer does not get predictable, stale and mundane.

7 - Write Down Prayer Requests

I always keep either pen and paper, or my cell phone (because I'm on it all the time) close by so that whenever people say, “Hey can you pray for me?” I can write it down or type the request into my phone.  That way, I never run out of things to talk about with God.

I hope these seven creative tips will help you become more consistent in your prayer life. 

Used with permission by Global Media Outreach from Allen Parr.  This article was first published as a video on The Beat.