"To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing."
To sum it up in three words: Prayer is vital.
So here are a few steps/ways/opportunities to boost up your prayer life and your friendship with the Maker.
1. Make a time each day for prayer: I don't know if you have this too, but there is a little (slight exaggeration) period of time each day where I have to go to something called school. And it kind of takes up my whole life, with studying, writing, erasing and stressing. But to fully appreciate and understand God, we need to talk to Him! So every morning, dedicate a few minutes to God. You don't have to pray for an hour, you don't even have to for ten minutes. (unless you want to, of course.) Just give God your full attention for at least 3 minutes. And maybe after a few weeks of settling into that routine, boost it to five. Then seven. And so on and so forth. Let's just put it this way. God would much rather hear your pray to him for five minutes than here you mumble along half asleep for twenty. I know for sure if I were talking to my friends I would want to listen to something interesting for a short period of time than droning on about school for a million hours. :)
2. Use tools: Bibles, Rosaries, Novenas, Chaplets, so many different ways you can pray! And the good thing is, you don't have to pray the same way every time. So explore different tools you can use in prayer. Go to adoration, read a story about a martyr. Personally, I like reading and reflecting on the Bible because it is so peaceful and is a nice break from a stressful day. Like drawing? Draw a picture of Jesus and pray during it. Like writing? Write a prayer of thanksgiving. Find a way that you feel comfortable and happy and use it to contact God.
3. Share with others: If God wanted us to be alone, he wouldn't of created Eve to accompany Adam. God wants us to be with others and to share our great relationship with Him to everyone in the world! So maybe invite some friends over to adoration with you, or maybe church. If someone you know is sick, grab some friends and make cards or casseroles and cheer them up! Make a prayer group with peers, find people that you can lean on and ask for prayers. Prayer is powerful, but even more powerful with more than one person.
4. Read the Bible: The Bible is our handbook for life. Literally. Anything you want to know is in that book. It seems intimidating sitting there in all of it's a million paged glory. But if you take sometime to read what God is saying to you, it shrinks down in size, doesn't it? That book is God's actual words. Words that came out of His mouth or through the Holy Spirit, it's all in there. God is pushing through the door to speak to you, and all you got to do is open the Book to let Him in.
5. Live it Out!: The goal of our lives is to get others and ourselves to Heaven. Share with others! That is what God wants us to do: spread the Word to everyone that we know. And it doesn't have to be in a big way, just little ways. Compliment someone. Write letters to the lonely. Help out with the dishes. Get out of the lazy zone and find one way a day to help someone else. And like your routine with prayer, gradually grow a little bit.
6. Get to Know God: The more you know about someone, the more you can understand about them. It's the same way with God! The more we know about Him, the easier it will be to follow His example and his always cheerful mood. I promise you, the more you know him the more easy life will become.
Prayer is our communication with God, our way to talk to Him. So don't waste it! Use it up! The awesome thing about prayer is that the line is never disconnected. Any time, any place, any where you want to send a one way call up to the Big Man Upstairs, you can. It's that easy!
If you have any other ways that helped you pray, please don't be afraid to leave a comment! Thanks to all!
All through Christ,
-Maddie
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