Habit #4: Speak with God

We don’t have to speak with God in prayer; we get to speak with God in prayer. It’s a gift, not an obligation. God loves to hear from his people. He invites us to come to him and tell him what’s on our minds, and to ask for his help in every area of our lives.

The hardest part about prayer is often just getting started. This habit aims to help you see prayer as a regular part of your life, an action that we can regularly as we live in relationship with our Father.

Choose Your Actions

Choose one or more of the following:

• Choose a time each day to pray, and set a timer for five minutes.
• Go for a prayer walk. While walking, spend time praying to God and telling Him what is on your mind.
• Keep a prayer journal. Buy a paper journal or use a journaling app, and write your prayers to God.

Suggested Resources

Books

• No book has helped me more with prayer than Paul Miller’s A Praying Life. Reading this book helped me stop seeing prayer as an obligation. It made me want to pray more. If you don’t want to read the whole book, Beginning a Praying Life is based on the bigger book, but only 64 pages.
• Skye Jethani’s book What If Jesus Was Serious About Prayer?is also very good.
• Tim Keller has also written a helpful book on prayer.
• My friend Tim Kerr has written a helpful small book called 22 Life Lessons on Prayer. Download it for free (PDF), or order a paper copy. He’s also put together a book called Take Words With You that includes over 2500 Scripture promises and prayers that you can use to fuel your prayer life. Download a copy (PDF) or buy a paper copy.
• If you want to experiment with praying at set times throughout the day, The Divine Hours is a good place to start.

App

I enjoy using the PrayerMate app to help organize when I pray for people and ministries.

Have an idea, or need support? Visit the DashHouse community.