I've talked to you before about habits. We usually view them as being negative—behaviors we've subconsciously picked up and then repeat without thinking about them.
That’s not always true.
I blogged about habits a couple of weeks ago, and I’ll take it a step further, pulling from my teaching at Kairos.
Developing habits of prayer are essential to the disciple’s life. It looks like this:
1. Find a place and a time, then start showing up there every day. The experts tell us it takes 21 days to fix a habit in place. Show up at the same time and place for 21 days and you’ll develop the holy habit of prayer.
2. What do you do when you get to your place and time of prayer? Focus your mind by reading Scripture. The Psalms are the prayer book of the Bible. It’s a great place to start. If you’re new to reading the Bible, begin with the Gospel of Mark. It’s a quick, easy read and you’ll find out a lot about the ministry of Jesus in a very short time.
3. Pray using the acronym ACTS:
A = adoration
C = confession
T = thanksgiving
S = supplications (praying for what you need)
Remember—every day at the same place and same time. We want to get to the place where we can stop thinking about speaking to Jesus and actually start speaking with Him.
If you miss a day, don’t worry about it. Get back into it as soon as you can. Soon the day will come when you never think about missing it.
Now you have the plan. All that’s missing is a little willpower from you.
