A Step Toward Unceasing Prayer: Embracing Discipline and Planning
This past week, I came to an important realization about my prayer life that changed everything going forward. The main thing missing from my prayer life was…prayer. Not knowledge about prayer, but prayer itself. I’ve been hit and miss with time spent in prayer, a pattern that resembles the schedule a distracted four-year-old might keep for feeding his pet goldfish.
Our erratic prayer life is discouraging. We try on solutions like hats. We sit in the same rut wondering why we’re not progressing beyond mediocre. And we’re avoiding the real problem.
Why Increased Knowledge Isn’t Helping Our Prayer Life
We assume we’ve missed out on some secret to a vibrant prayer life and our ignorance is holding us back. So we hunt for a new technique…that won’t work. If we’re honest, the “secret” we’ve been missing is the only secret we don’t want to hear about. It doesn’t come in a neat package, it isn’t free, and it isn’t natural.
We’ve Been Avoiding Discipline
We avoid admitting the need for discipline. We trip over the need for it every now and then, then run along in denial. Discipline, like doctrine, sounds like a killjoy when in fact it is just the opposite. Let me give you a quick example.
Who has more joy and feels more free, the novice picking up a violin for the first time, or a world-class composer of the score for blockbuster films? Discipline makes possible the joy and freedom of playing a violin as if it was second nature. The value of discipline is clear. Let me give you a brief warning though.
Warning: Discipline is Not an End
Discipline itself has no value. But it is a Spirit-generated gift necessary for fuller delight in Christ. This discipline (self-control) is a fruit of the Spirit and a facet of Christian character that we lack only so long as we refuse to pay its price. Because discipline is a gift of God available to every believer, we can develop it. It is in reach because the Father has reached down to give it to us by the Spirit through His Son.
Also know that I am not making a case against spontaneous prayer. But I wouldn’t rely on spontaneous prayer because it fades in the absence of discipline. It becomes a feeble visitor, not a persistent companion. We won’t pray without ceasing when busyness leaves spontaneity sidelined. The only way to continue in prayer is have discipline and a plan.
Application: Plan a Time and Place For Daily Prayer
Action gives feet to desire, and planning gives those feet a path to run on. If you desire to pray, then plan to pray. A wartime mentality demands intentional planning. There is a lot to learn about prayer, but it is useless if we are not getting on our knees. Our prayer should be planned – intentional, specific, and motivated by duty and delight.
The Natural, Unplanned Flow of Spiritual Life Sinks to the Lowest Ebb of Vitality
John Piper highlights the need for planned prayer in his book, Desiring God [download and read for free]:
“Unless I’m badly mistaken, one of the main reasons so many of God’s children don’t have a significant life of prayer is not so much that we don’t want to, but that we don’t plan to. If you want to take a four-week vacation, you don’t just get up one summer morning and say, ‘Hey, let’s go today!’ You won’t have anything ready. You won’t know where to go. Nothing has been planned.
“But that is how many of us treat prayer. We get up day after day and realize that significant times of prayer should be a part of our life, but nothing’s ever ready. We don’t know where to go. Nothing has been planned. No time. No place. No procedure. And we all know that the opposite of planning is not a wonderful flow of deep, spontaneous experiences in prayer. The opposite of planning is the rut. If you don’t plan a vacation, you will probably stay home and watch TV. The natural, unplanned flow of spiritual life sinks to the lowest ebb of vitality. There is a race to be run and a fight to be fought. If you want renewal in your life of prayer, you must plan to see it.
“Therefore, my simple exhortation is this: Let us take time this very day to rethink our priorities and how prayer fits in. Make some new resolve. Try some new venture with God. Set a time. Set a place. Choose a portion of Scripture to guide you. Don’t be tyrannized by the press of busy days. We all need midcourse corrections. Make this a day of turning to prayer—for the glory of God and for the fullness of your joy.”
Take these things to heart.
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Related posts:
- A Step Toward Unceasing Prayer: Responding to the Holy Spirit
- A Step Toward Unceasing Prayer: A Wartime Mentality
- Developing Your Prayer Life: The Ongoing Series
This series of posts is exactly what I need. Thank you.
When all of the excuses and justifications are washed away, what I lack is the discipline to just do it. It’s time for me to stand up and begin again.
May God bless you.
I’ve been concerned more and more lately about prayer and keep realizing more and more the importance or it’s presence, practice , and consistency.
This post is in a line of things, that have sort of “fallen in my lap” including Celebration of Discipline and the Resurgence’s series on prayer.
Excellent post Daniel.
I agree wholeheartedly with Robert – this is exactly what I need – and goes hand-in-hand with my thinking and the Spirit’s guiding of late. I have thought quite a bit about 2 Peter 1:2-3 (below) in light of my prayer life and other aspects of Christian discipleship, and realize that I already have, through my knowledge of Christ Jesus, what I need for bearing the fruit of self-discipline (et al. ) and that I need to walk in the Spirit to experience this. Your series has been the perfect addition to my own pursuit of a more disciplined, meaningful and effective prayer life, in obedience to Christ.
“May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence…” 2 Peter 1:2-3
I appreciate this series, Daniel. My struggle to be consistent and fervent in prayer is a frequent source of frustration for me. I find it far to easy to be distracted. Thanks, brother.
Rob, Tripp, Lorraine, Barry…I hope the post was clear enough that apart from Christ, discipline is useless. We’ll either fail to exercise it, or just as bad (if not worse), we will exercise it with no heart in it. We’ll be a disciplined Pharisee unless our hearts are changed and the Spirit bears fruit.
At the same time…we remember that the work of the Spirit makes our work possible. It doesn’t relieve us from exerting effort and acting.
Just wanted to clarify that again…lest my writing depict a false gospel where there is some hope in ourselves apart from Christ.
Good clarification Daniel – that’s it exactly… it is indeed “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness”, emphasis on HIS.
I am crucified with Christ, I no longer live, but Christ within me – the life I now live, I live by FAITH in the Son of God. I am walking by faith, praising Him for His grace, and enjoying the fruit that is borne by the Spirit.
Excellent prayer time today – God is indeed, Good!
Hey Daniel, more good reminders here, including the clarification that discipline, by itself, avails nothing. That’s just human effort, and I”ve certainly seen that human effort without divine intervention is tiring and ineffective.
But you’re right, discipline when He is leading us to do something helps us to be consistent and fight battles we need to fight since the devil is so good at coming in and tempting us to stop doing something or be less ethusiastic or fervent about doing something that God has already made clear is important and pleasing to Him. My prayer planning includes starting ever day with prayer and praying on my commute between my home in the country and my job in the city every day. Prayers for direction in how to pray and passion as I pray are usually included, and He so faithfully answers those prayers with strength and joy from His Spirit! I don’t always remember it, but praying in the Spirit is a beautiful thing!
Thanks, Daniel, for the much needed but not necessarily welcomed reminder that we need discipline and planning to grow in prayer. I detect traces of John Piper: ‘wartime mentality’, ‘duty and delight’, and of course, the quote from his book. We need to learn from such saints.
What a great encouragement and challenge. Something that definitely ministered to me. Actually, I was just thinking about planning prayer the other day because my prayer life has been pretty much non-existent. Now I read this.
It’s amazing how God lead’s His children.
Just another thought on a practical note – I had recently tried a little system of using a binder with tabs for categories of prayer – the lost, friends/neighbours, relative, the Body, missions, my country, the world, et al. You get the idea. Well, I found it cumbersome for me personally, and have found that just writing things on 3×5 cards and praying through them works much better. This way I just pick up where I left off in terms of intercession, and each time I spend time in praise/adoration, confession, thanksgiving and just quiet meditation as well. Urgent or time sensitive requests get a coloured card so I remember to pray more often for these things. Just a thought about what has been working to help me in my discipline of prayer.
Lorraine: Thanks for the insight. Now if I can just bring myself to get those 3×5 cards….
lol,