10 Ways to Spice Up Your Prayer Life

Lately I’ve been compiling a list of creative ideas to develop really good prayer habits. I want to share that list with you as well as give you the opportunity to share you’re own ideas. My prayer life needs to grow… a lot! I could have written this blog about a theology of prayer or Biblical motives to pray. But sometimes you just need to buckle up your tool belt and get to work!

Go Somewhere Special to Pray

  • Go for a walk. As the winter transitions into spring, I plan to go on a walk and talk to God about how this season reminds me of who he is and how he works. I plan to do the same when the leaves change colors and when it snows etc…
  • Go to church on a weekday. Although its hard to find a solitary place in our busy church building, a couple times I have found a quiet corner and prayed for our pastors and our congregation and the ways God is working in our church.
  • Watch a sunrise or/and a sunset. Dawn and dusk are the perfect times to praise God for filling the earth with beauty!

Follow Biblical Examples of Prayer

  • The Psalms. Warning! Praying through the Psalms will take you through a whole range of emotions. The psalmist may joyfully give thanks in one Psalm and in another cry out to him in brutal despair.
  • Jesus. The greatest man of prayer of all time. There’s no better place to start than the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6:9-13.
  • The Epistles. The writers of the epistles repeatedly describe how they are praying for churches and could provide a framework for your own prayers. For example: Ephesians 3:14-19, Colossians 1:9-12, and 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5.

Keep a Prayer Journal

  • Write out your prayer as if you were writing a letter or a poem to God. I do this once a week (typically on Saturdays) and it helps me keep track of my prayer history and be honest to God in ways I hadn’t thought before.
  • Make it visual! I haven’t done this one yet but eventually I want to get a little artistic by making my journal more like a scrap book with pictures and personal notes to give me something visual to pray over.

Pray Through Lists

  • Text thanksgiving lists to a close friend or family member. My girlfriend and I have started texting each other five to ten things we are thankful for every night and then I talk to God about them before I go to sleep. This has been so good for me that I hope to make it a life-long habit!
  • Attributes of God. Once a week, list specific attributes of God that you have seen in action and praise God for being the kind of God that he is!

What about you? Do you have any other creative ideas to share?

Nate Hornbrook