Getting Good at Prayer Isn't the Point Part 6 of 6

 

Increasing Your Want-To (3)

Marching orders
One of the early members of AA talked about a tradition their little group had of spending a few moments listening to see if God had anything for them to do that day. It was rarely anything dramatic, most often a small act of service. Write a note of encouragement. Go back and correct a mistake at work from yesterday. Straighten your room. Pay a bill.  

I thought this was a good practice, because it's so easy for us to focus only on God's big callings. It is so easy to get caught up in what=I want to do that I lose willingness to say yes to God's call.  

So I take a little time during prayer to just listen, see if there are any small tasks that come to mind, and practice saying yes.  

I have found that, when it comes to prayer, experimenting with different "hows" helps me "want to" pray more.  

Prayer is such a mystery to me that I'm not sure my prayer life is better now than when I began many years ago. But maybe that's not the point. I believe in prayer now in ways that I did not understand then.  

And to believe is to begin to pray.*

          *excerpted and paraphrased from John Ortberg’s insights for Christianity Today, July 6, 2015. 


Comment       

For more:   follow on Twitter @jefflampl