Prayer Guide

Do You Get Bored While Praying?

Take Your Prayer Life from Ordinary to Extraordinary

Whether or not we want to admit it, most of us have experienced thoughts similar to those listed below.

It seems like my prayers go no higher than the ceiling.
I hate to admit it, but I find prayer to be really boring.
My prayers don’t seem to have much impact, so why bother praying?

In his book, Transforming Prayer, Daniel Henderson makes the statement “Prayerlessness is our declaration of independence from God.” Deep down, we know that is true, but we often find ourselves either so discouraged or simply distracted with shiny things in life that prayer becomes just another neglected tool kept in our broom closet.

In his book, Henderson states that one study found that only 16 percent of Protestant ministers across the country are very satisfied with their personal prayer life. Wow! If most pastors don’t have a satisfactory prayer life, what hope is there for the rest of us? Well, read on for some great news!

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Worship-Based Prayer

Henderson offers a couple of simple yet powerful keys for anyone longing for a powerful, vibrant and even exciting prayer life! He subtitles his book How Everything Changes When You Seek God’s Face.

Practice Worship-Based Prayer.

This means that we seek first the face of God before we seek the hand of God. All those who know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior have this incredible privilege of communicating with the actual Creator of the Universe! And communicating means listening as well as talking. Imagine! God Almighty wants to communicate with each one of us! Henderson says, “Worship-based prayer seeks the face of God before the hand of God. God’s face is the essence of who He is. God’s hand is the blessing of what He does. God’s face represents His person and presence.

God’s hand expresses His provision for needs in our lives. I have learned that if all we ever do is seek God’s hand, we may miss His face; but if we seek His face, He will be glad to open His hand and satisfy the deepest desires of our hearts.”

Pray from Scripture

In his book, The Path to Celtic Prayer, Calvin Miller explains, “Too often, we go into God’s presence with a list of pleas, trying to talk God into granting our desire. But this kind of praying makes us ‘one big mouth’ and God ‘one grand ear.’ But when we pray the Scriptures, it makes God the voice and leaves us as the ear. In short, God gets His turn at getting a word in edgewise.” A core focus of worship-based prayer is the commitment to start prayer from the Word of God. This is one key to abiding. Jesus emphasized, “If you abide in Me, and My Words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples” ( John 15:7–8).

As we pray according to the above two principles, we find that we still pray about many of the same needs, but now we are praying from God’s perspective rather than our own. Praying from God’s Word gives us great faith as we pray in accordance with God’s known will. Also, as we align our hearts and prayers with God, a passion generated by the Holy Spirit transforms our prayers from something stale and dry to something dynamic and energized. We are no longer just going through a dry routine covering prayer lists; our prayers are now infused with the power and life of the Holy Spirit!