Making Time

     It takes time to communicate. There’s no way around it! Considering everything else you need to do, it will probably seem like a sacrifice at first to take a few minutes with the Lord before your day begins. It may also seem like an awkward and unwelcome interruption to stop other things later to talk with the Lord. It’s a mistake, though, to look at time spent in prayer as time that could have been better used to get things done, because as busy as you may be, if you take time to pray, you’ll be able to get a lot more done than you ever would otherwise. It’s an investment, but once you start reaping the benefits, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it. Here are a few tips to help get you started:

Make a conscious effort. Like any new habit, this will take conscious effort over a period of time. You have to really work at it at first. It usually involves a lot of forgetting and some remembering, but in time you’ll find you’re remembering to pray more and more, and forgetting less.

Make it a priority. You always have time for the things you consider most important.

Set aside specific times for prayer in your daily routine. King David wrote in the Book of Psalms, “Evening and morning and at noon I will pray … and He shall hear my voice.”1 If you wait till everything else is taken care of, it will never happen. If you find that one time of day doesn’t work well for you, try another.

Find a time and place where you can get quiet, and where you won’t be distracted by other things going on around you.

Set attainable goals for yourself-perhaps five or ten minutes once a day to start, and then try to up it to twice a day or more. Prayers don’t need to be long. When Jesus’ disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, the model prayer He taught them-now known as the Lord’s Prayer-was only sixty-six words.2 It’s not how long you pray that counts, but how much you believe, how earnest and sincere you are.

Take advantage of spare moments during the day for a short pick-me-up prayers. You can do it during a coffee break, when stuck in traffic, while waiting for an appointment, while cooking, while taking a shower, while waiting for the baby to drift off to sleep, while walking the dog-almost any time, really. Just focus your thoughts on the Lord and let Him refresh you and give you strength and inspiration to carry on.3

Even after you get in the habit of praying while you’re doing other things, you still need quiet times when you can give your full attention to the Lord and what He has to say to you.

If you miss your appointed times one day, don’t give up! Try again the next day.