Extended prayer is a bit daunting, yes? For some of us, praying for 10 minutes seems like a long time. Especially if your prayer time happens after you’ve placed your head on your pillow at the end of a long day. Then do you find yourself falling asleep in mid-sentence to God? You know, “God, thank you for a wonderful day. I pray for Janine as she struggles with her kids. May You give her wisdom to know what…..zzzzzzzzzz”
Or maybe you get distracted in your prayers.
Distraction can be bad if it dominates your prayers, but it is okay to go off on tangents now and then. Sometimes we forget that prayer is a CONVERSATION with God and not a one-sided one where WE do all the talking.
God may use a tangent to get our attention. He may call to mind a name of someone you are to pray for. Or He may call to mind an incident that happened during the day that you need to confess or need to apologize to the person about. So follow the thoughts God may bring up when you are listening to Him but don’t let them take over the rest of your prayer time. You know, like when this has happened: “God, thank you for a wonderful day. The weather was beautiful for the picnic. And thank you for keeping everyone safe. Especially with all the bees around. Hmmm I wonder if Aunt Clara got her cookies along with her? Oh, and I forgot to tell her about the program at school next week. Oh good grief. I need to get some shoes for Sarah to wear. I wonder what size she wears now. Did I turn on the dishwasher? Ooops, sorry God. Ummm please forgive me for skipping my devotions this morning when I was getting ready for the reunion. Please be with my hubby tomorrow on his business trip. Protect him and bring him home safely. I wonder if he packed his cell phone charger? He always forgets that.”
Below is a prayer sheet I created using the information laid out in Eastman’s book. I also created a description sheet to use to remind myself what each segment of the prayer time was to consist of. For a better understanding of this method of prayer, I would strongly recommend reading the book. Especially if you are serious about learning this method. I will say that I experienced my most meaningful times of prayer when I used this method habitually. So, yes, by saying that I guess you can tell that I do not use this method all the time. When I was nursing my third child I completely fell off the prayer journaling wagon! I didn’t have time to journal at all. Now that he is a bit older and a bit easier to care for, I have added this method into my prayer routine again here and there.
Using this guide, you CAN pray for an hour or more! Please feel free to post questions.
Blessings,
Amy
Click on the picture to enlarge and print:
Prayer Sheet
Description Sheet
