August 5
“But like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’” (1 Peter 1:15-16)
Yesterday we discussed some thoughts about how to develop disciplines of change, change that is permanent, change that results in power to overcome temptation day by day for the rest of our lives. We discussed the importance of having an unquenchable desire for holiness, of having a hunger and thirst for righteousness, praying for daily and habitually for this desire.
Along these same lines, the most effective thing I can suggest for producing lasting change in your life is developing the habit of daily prayer using a list of what you want God to produce in you. One of the things that I have noticed about my own prayer life is that when I don’t have a well-thought out list of things to pray for before me, my prayers take more time, my mind is distracted and interrupted by various thoughts and even competing prayer requests, I usually don’t cover everything, and I end up feeling like I haven’t prayed enough, even though I may have just spent hours trying to focus and pray.
When I do have a list in front of me with everything I am burdened about mentioned there, I can focus more intensely on one thing at a time, avoid distractions and forgetting things, and I feel that much better progress is being made in my praying. The problem with a list, however, is that it can get old and become stale, and I can end up just saying words without really thinking about them. “Keeping it fresh and spontaneous” might be a reason why I might not want to use the list every now and then, but for me personally, I find great value in having the list almost every day.
I have a typed-up list that I recently had laminated so it wouldn’t get lost or misplaced or damaged or forgotten. On it, I have the character qualities I am asking God to produce in me and the kind of person I want to become. I have listed the “mountains” I am asking God to move and the miracles I need Him to do on my behalf. I have captured the “big and lofty” goals that I am asking for His glory, such as bringing 1 Billion people to Christ (that did not know Him as their personal savior January 1, 1992, when I first started praying that prayer). Every major thing I can think of that I want and need the Lord to do in my life I have tried to capture on this laminated prayer list.
My recommendation is to you that you have such a list and you make it a daily habit to spend time praying through it. Do you have a devotional time already, one in which you read Bible verses and do some praying? If so, that is a good start and place to add this more focused prayer time. If you don’t have a devotional time, if you aren’t doing any Bible reading on a daily basis, then this clearly is your first goal, to become disciplined in daily Bible reading and prayer. I personally can’t imagine getting by with less than a half an hour per day with the Lord reading and praying, and I recommend you set this as you initial goal, minimum. (My personal goal nowadays is to spend one hour studying the scriptures and one hour praying each day.) If a half hour seems like a lot of time to you, then simply think about the time you spend on the computer or in front of the TV or on social media, etc. You will realize that you waste far more time than this each and every day. You have do decide if you want victory or not, and you have to decide whether you want you life to count for Christ or not, bearing fruit for Him and standing before Him unashamed. If you want His victory and His approval, you will have to spend time with Him in His word and in prayer. There really is no other way that I know of or have heard of to progress in the Christian walk.