The Practice of Prayer

The Progression of Prayer – Part 3

The Sport of Prayer – Part 3.3

In order to be any good during scrimmage, one must go through the repetitions (reps) and practice. When an athlete shows up to a scrimmage never having been through any practice, it shows. It shows they’re not as far along as the guys who’ve mastered their practice regimen. Practicing, which can be compared to the times you pray with your family or other (what I call) non-prime time prayer meetings, is the best time to improve how you’ll perform at scrimmage.

“All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper ), and to prayer.” ^[1]

For practice of prayer, I think of the weekly Saturday prayer meetings we have as a church. The primary focus of this prayer time is to pray for our Sunday services. However, for those who wish to participate in the sport of prayer, this is the perfect time for practice. The beauty of the Saturday prayer time is that 1) it’s Saturday and not Sunday, 2) there aren’t very many people when compared to Sunday and 3) there are others you can engage with. Simply being in the room will put you at ease of being around others in prayer. It’s the time you can try a few different prayer techniques (so to speak) until you find the one that you’re most comfortable with. Prayer techniques include, but don’t limit it to this incomplete list of, the following:

• Pacing (my favorite)
• Standing in place
• Kneeling
• Sitting

Regardless of the techniques, practice breaks up the time of prayer so that you’re not simply praying on your own for an hour or more. In our prayer practice facility, you’ll find that our practice consists of a time of greeting & fellowship, worship, a message from the prayer leader, time spent on one’s own, and a time for the group or team. Allow me to provide a more detailed image of what these prayer-exercises (found in this example of prayer practice) look like.

 Greeting & Fellowship
Those I spend time with in Gameday prayer and practice prayer, often hear me say this. For any team, attitude matters. If we’re going to win in a sport and in prayer, we must all have the right attitude. If a team member doesn’t have the right attitude, I playfully threaten them with running laps around the prayer field. In practice, we assemble a few minutes early so that we can have a time of fellowship and check the pulse of those on the team, so to speak.

 Worship
Next, we have a time of worship, this part of practice is where the attitude is directed in worship to our God to whom we’re getting ready to offer prayer. We use worship to get us in the place or the temperament for prayer. By the way (let’s go to the left a little) when you engage in the practice of prayer, don’t forget it’s God to whom you’re speaking. Therefore, you need to have respect for the field of prayer. In the practice of prayer, you really need to go all in and give it your all. The practice of prayer is serious because how you practice (prayer) is how you play (pray).

 Message from a Leader
The next exercise is a message from a leader who gives us guidance as a group for this particular practice. The messages are usually short with a few points and topics to give each pray-er (person who prays) a focus for when we get to the next exercise which is done individually.

 Time On Your Own
When it’s time for the on-your-own exercise, this is where the prayer techniques I mentioned above come into play. Using the topics from the leader, allow God to guide you in your alone prayer exercise. While we are still in the room with a number of others, everyone is working on their prayer. During this time, you’re praying what God’s transmitting to your heart. BTW – God operates in the unseen, in the place where your thoughts reside, your heart. ^[2] It’s said in ancient scripture that at times God gave men dreams and visions, both of these occur in the unseen, the mind, and the heart. This is your time to open the ears of your heart and mind, so that you hear what God is saying for this guided exercise in the practice of prayer.

 Time for the Group or Team
After the on-your-own exercise, we return to the group. During this time, the leader leads us in other topics of prayer. I call this prayer drills. A topic may only last for a few seconds or a minute, so you have to hit it quickly and move on to the next topic. I like these drills because they prepare you for those moments where you might not have a lot of time to dedicate to prayer. It’s said that Nehemiah found himself in such a situation when he was before the king he worked for. Listen to how it reads, “the king asked, well, how can I help you? With a prayer to the God of heaven, I [Nehemiah] replied.” ^[3] There are sometimes in life that a few seconds is all you might have to offer your prayer. Be ready, go through your prayer drills in the practice of prayer. This is next-level prayer!

 Find you a place of inspiring and enjoyable prayer-in-practice. You see prayer is not only exciting, it takes work, and it’s fun. You have to make it fun, enjoyable, and it takes putting in the work to make it that way. The guidebook for life says that in His presence is complete joy. ^[4] Now that we’ve detailed the practice of prayer, the process of becoming the best at the sport of prayer doesn’t start or end here. In fact, one is not truly ready for practice until he or she has done their own workouts and conditioning. This is what we will cover next time.

 Question: what technique in the practice of prayer can you envision using to take you to the next level in prayer?

Reference #1: ‭‭Acts of the Apostles‬ ‭2:42‬ ‭NLT‬‬‬‬‬‬, Bible.com, accessed March 8, 2022, https://www.bible.com/116/act.2.42.nlt

Reference #2: Psalms‬ ‭27:8‬ ‭NLT‬‬‬‬‬‬‬, Bible.com, accessed March 8, 2022, https://bible.com/bible/116/psa.27.8.NLT

Reference #3: Nehemiah‬ ‭2:4-5‬ ‭NLT‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬, Bible.com, accessed March 8, 2022, https://bible.com/bible/116/neh.2.4-5.NLT

Reference #4: Psalms‬ ‭16:11‬ ‭NKJV‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬, Bible.com, accessed March 8, 2022, https://bible.com/bible/114/psa.16.11.NKJV

All Scripture references used by permission, see our Scripture copyrights.