As it’s already been stated, Bible reading and prayer are the two most basic spiritual disciplines of Christian faith.  Prayer in the simplest way is talking to God.  It is sharing with your loving Father your heart, thoughts, emotions, requests, needs, cares, anxieties, worries, praises, thanksgivings, hopes, and desires.  The list could go on for days.  God speaks to you through His Word and you speak to Him through prayer.  Here are some simple tips and steps for developing a discipline of prayer.

Tip #1: Set up “triggers” in your life. We talked about triggers last week.  Take things that you do everyday and make them triggers for you to pray.  Here are some ideas to help you get started: taking a shower, using the bathroom, getting in your car, making coffee, getting in bed, getting ready to read your Bible, finishing reading your Bible, driving to work, driving home, finishing lunch, eating eggs, sailing on a boat, scratching your nose, and buying a tambourine. You get the idea. Take things that you do everyday and use them as a trigger to pray.

Tip #2: Have a plan. If you don’t have a plan, you can easily become a random prayer. Whatever comes to your head at the time is what you will pray for. You will constantly be praying for the same things over and over. This isn’t necessarily bad, but there are a lot more things/people in your life that could be praying for.  So have a standard place where you keep track of all the things that you want to pray about. Then review this list at least once a day. This way nothing gets left behind.

Tip #3: Talk to God. 
This might sound dumb to some, but for others this will be an epiphany. I don’t know if you noticed this or not, but some people like to use what could be called “prayer talk.”  This is where a person suddenly embodies the spirit of a TV evangelist and sees how many times they can say the words God, Father God, Lord, or Jesus (whichever is the persons favorite) in a prayer.  It comes as a surprise to most that you can actually just talk to God. You don’t have to use His name as the punctuation to every sentence. You don’t have to speak in old English. You can just talk to Him. Just like you talk to your friends about your troubles and your successes, you can talk to Him. You can tell Him your struggles and failures. You can tell Him jokes. You can even be angry and cry out to Him (read a few Psalms and you’ll get the idea). Prayer is you simply talking to God. No flair. No technicalities. No special formulas. Just talking.

Tip #4: Write it down.   When you develop a habit of constantly praying, it becomes easy to forget what you’ve prayed about.  Therefore, you can lose track of whether or not God has answered your prayers. This is so you can look back and see how God has answered your prayers over time.  Keep it simple though.  Don’t set a limit. That means no minimum or maximum. It puts an unnecessary burden on you. Some days you will write pages worth of prayer to God. Other days it will be the simple phrase, “God help me.” The idea is to simply write it out.

Tip #5: Keep it simple. During the time of Jesus, Jews would have standard prayers for everything that they would do. You would have a standard prayer for plowing a field, eating a meal, drinking wine…even going to the bathroom.[i] The key was that most of these prayers were only a sentence long. The reality is that our prayers don’t have to be five minutes long for God to hear us. Sometimes the simplest prayers are the best prayers. If you can only think of a few things to say to God, then say them. God isn’t keeping a tally of how much you pray. He just wants to hear from you.

Tip #6: Keep it sweet. 
Remember whom you are talking to. While God is the King of the Universe, He is also the Lover of your soul. One of the reasons that David was a man after God’s own heart was because he was passionate and honest with God. He was open and honest as you can only be with a closest friend. The worst prayer isn’t a long prayer or a prayer said in Old English but a prayer that has no heart. If you aren’t praying out of a love for God, then are you really praying?  The reality is that this is the core of all prayer…to seek the face of God….to seek after His heart. Prayer is one of the most intimate times we have with God. Treat it that way.

---

[i] Marvin R. Wilson, Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1989).

Hello,

With only a few days away from running in my first triathlon, I wanted to share some words of encouragement and wisdom with my fellow athletes out there.  I didn’t grow up a very athletic person.  I’m not that coordinated, and I’m not that strong.

I tried playing basketball, but I was to aggressive.  I would generally only get to play for five minutes before I would foul out.  I tried playing football, but I wasn’t big enough, strong enough, fast enough, or aggressive enough to be any good (it didn’t help that the coach wanted me to play center at 6′ and 135 lbs).  There was really only one sport I was good at…track.

It doesn’t take a lot of strength or skill to run.  So I did really well.  I wasn’t fast, so I ran longer distance events.  I wasn’t the best, but I always placed.  I ran on the varsity track team at my school starting in eighth grade until I graduated. (we were a small division school).  I loved pushing my body to it’s limit and then some.  I loved competing.  It’s this history of competition that starts to bring up some long lost feelings inside of me.

Some of my feelings are good and some are bad.  I think sports can bring out the best and the worst in people (and sometimes at the same time).  I know from experience that sports and competition can bring out a laundry list of sins in people…pride, selfishness, arrogance, timidity, course language, unrighteous anger, belittlement, ect.

I have seen people pray before a game and in the same breath speak crude and prideful words against the other team. I have been an arrogant winner and a sore loser.  I have been poor sport.  I have cheated.  I have belittled and demeaned other athletes and teammates.

But I have also seen athletes become even more Christ-like through competition and sports.  I’ve seen teamwork and unity abound.  I’ve seen men with great talent and heart walk humbly in a knowledge of Who gave them their gifts.  I have seen men suffer well in harsh anti-christian environments.  I have seen men point to Jesus as their true prize and not some medal or ribbon.

It is with this in mind that I write this letter.  I am determined that sports and competition will not bring me down.  I am determined to not seek glory for myself.  But I pray that my competing will be done in a way that brings glory to Jesus. I am determined that it is more important to finish the race with integrity proclaiming the good news of Jesus than to win and dishonor his name (not like I have a chance of winning).  I am determined that Jesus is my ultimate prize.  The reason I compete is to draw closer to Jesus and humbly point others to Him.

Whether I win or lose, I am determined to “run the good race.”  I hope you are determined too.

To the glory of God,

Greg Qualls

After hours of tracking and waiting and blending in with all the liberals, Shannon and I saw the elusive Bama (Barack Obama that is). I didn’t end up getting a picture of me with him…but I did take a video with my camera that shows that I was in the same room with him (I’ll post that later).

The morning started early with a stop to our favorite local coffee shop. You might have heard of it…Starbucks. Shannon got her grande-half-calf-non-fat-no-wip-white-chocolate mocha, and I got a grande peppermint mocha. The morning started off in the right direction. After getting our “nectar from the god’s,” we headed off to the Kiva Auditorium to get in line. The doors didn’t open until 11:30 am, but we got there at around 8:30 am and the line was just starting. We only had about 20 people in front of us.

The time spent waiting was pretty enjoyable. Except for the typical crazy freak who gets pissed off every time someone’s friends join them in line in front of him (I’ve experienced these people at concert’s before). Seriously do you really think security is going to do anything when you go whine to them every 15 minutes.

At 11:30 the doors where opened and we were all quickly frisked…I mean whisked into the auditorium where we waited for another hour-and-forty-five minutes. At least at this point we weren’t sitting on hard concrete anymore. We got some pretty sweet seats. Not only was I close enough to see Obama…I could have thrown something at him if I wanted to (and I throw like a girl…so that’s pretty darn close).

I have to say, I went into this with only the hopes of getting a picture, but I came out of the event really liking Obama. He has some really good, practical ideas to change our country. I like him (not as much as Ron Paul though). If the dude ends up getting the Dem. nom I think I might toss a vote his way (unless Ron Paul runs as a third-party candidate…then I’m voting for both Ron Paul and Obama…think about it and it will come to you).

So that is the short version on our trip to see the Bama. If you are a registered Democrat…I recommend giving the guy a look before you vote in the primary. And if you haven’t registered to vote yet…well you can click on the Rock the Vote graphic in the right column of my site….it’s fun for the whole family.

So I have to go to Phoenix today for some training (in fact, I’m writting this in the airport right now).  Yes. UPS is flying me to Phoenix for just the day (it doesn’t make sense….but they are paying for it….so I’ll go).  So, this means that I had to get up at the butt crack of dawn to catch my flight. 

I really don’t like getting up this early in the morning.  I’m just not a happy person.  Plus, all the errors with the airport seem to be amplified.  The security gaurd’s stupidity is stupider (as well is my spelling…maybe), the happy morning people are even more detestable, and the coffee tastes horrible.

Plus, you determine (once again) that you are only going to show up at the airport 30 min before your flight from now on.  Because you get here an hour and a half before your flight and get through security in five minutes (I’m not exgagerating).  But you know the one time that you do, you will miss your flight and go back to square one again (plus it gives you time to blog).

Maybe they still tell everyone to show up early because they have to make consideration for that one idiot that doesn’t realize he needs to empty his pockets of metal before going through the metal detector (He has his house keys, some loose change, and a lead pipe in his pockets and he can’t understand why it is beeping at him).  I mean it’s 5:30 in the morning and even in my sleep deprived coma, I can figure out how to empty my pockets.

They should just say, “pleas show up 45-60 minutes before your flight.  Unless you are an idiot…then please don’t fly.” I think life would be better for all of us.   They should do this for most places that have lines.  There should be a normal line and a “We’re forced to serve you…so please get in this line” line. 

Ohhh well.  I doubt it will ever happen.  All the good ideas eventually get stopped by government or the like (like Shannon’s idea to castrate any male that is disrespectful to a female….just didn’t seem to go over well).  But we can always dream.

Until then, I’ll just repent for being so angry at the guy that couldn’t empty his pockets. “Forgive me Jesus for being so angry at the guy that couldn’t empty his pockets….even though he was an idiot.”