Here are some common, but less-than desirable approaches:
Most Christians probably feel like they should be praying more. And most probably should! My guess is that many Christians already know what they’re NOT doing and are feeling guilty about how deprived their prayer life is. I’d love to convince you to give your prayer life first priority and passionately engage in conversation with your Father.
So let’s take these common approaches to prayer and make a few subtle changes:
Here’s the shift you need to make: In the midst of the discipline, try to keep prayer genuine, not just a task. It is OK to have days that we feel like we’re just going through the motions, because unless we make prayer a discipline, we’ll never grow. As Larry Lea points out in Could You Not Tarry One Hour, you must move through the duty and discipline of prayer in order to move into the delight of prayer.
Here’s the shift you can make: Instead of praying only for major needs why not talk with God about small needs as well. The bible says to “cast ALL your cares on Him who cares for you.” Likely a large portion of our thoughts could fall in the category of “worry.” But the bible uses the word “cares.” So not even just worries, but things that we simply care about. Now here’s the best part: What if we simply turned all those thoughts – be they worries, concerns, people or issues, how our day is going to go, etc. – and simply directed those thoughts, in the direction of Gods ears? He hears our thoughts anyhow, so all we need to do is acknowledge that He is listening and He cares more than we do about our lives.
Here’s the shift you can make: In times when your heart feels rather disengaged about what you’re praying, remember 2 things:
1) It’s OK the feel disengaged about what we are praying about, (this is common when we make prayer a discipline!) however, don’t be disengaged with who you are praying to. Think of it this way. One may care very little about what they are praying about, but care very much about who they are praying to. That is a heart posture. Let’s have a heart that loves Him, and talks to him about everything, even things we don’t care much about at the time.
2) Our prayer are not made any more powerful based on how emotionally engaged we are with them. Our prayers are made powerful by the blood of Jesus! Period! Our standing in Jesus is the only thing that gives our prayers any merit, and because of Him, God has given our prayers the highest merit of all!