Have you found yourselves short on minutes in your day during certain seasons in life? Do you frantically try to cut tasks to get through your patch of busyness? Does the urge to skip prayer with God win out? If so, you might want to rethink that strategy.
We often rationalize that skipping our time with God will be okay because it will only be for today. We figure catching up with Him later will be good enough. After all, He is always near, loves us unconditionally, and is so understanding.
Do you ever rationalize this way?
Perhaps your busyness of life is due to a project, unexpected circumstance, or you said “yes” too many times when solicited for help. The reasons are vast.
However, as we skip our prayer time, one day leads to another, and before we know it, we are out of the habit of spending time with an essential person in our lives. Our short-term season of busyness becomes a lifestyle, and our prayer time gets pinched out.
Do you ever do this? Are you there now?
Last week, I convinced myself I should get up and start working and have my quiet time with God later in the day. Well, one day led to two, and then the feelings of being overwhelmed set in faster than I could believe. Oh, I won’t say I didn’t pray at all because God and I tend to converse throughout the day. However, my prayers were rushed, and I was doing all the talking.
Listening to God's voice is so important in our prayer time. After all, a relationship includes two people, not one. #prayer Click To Tweet
Here is what I found out happens when I skip prayer with God.
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- I get out of the habit quickly.
- Crankiness appears out of nowhere.
- God’s priorities go by the wayside.
- Feeling overwhelmed sets in quickly.
- Whatever I am producing feels arduous and unfulfilling.
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How about you - what happens to you when you skip prayer with God? #prayer Click To Tweet
But what if we don’t allow our prayer time to be missed when we get busy and instead find a new way to connect with God. Last week Deborah Haddix wrote an insightful article on praying when our days are busy. She shares seven practical ideas for praying.
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7 Practical Ideas for Praying When Days are Busy
By Deborah Haddix
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We would love to have you come back here and share which idea you would be willing to try this week. My pick was to incorporate whisper breath prayers into my day.
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Prayer is so powerful! When you skip prayer things don’t go as well as they could have. Thanks for sharing this. Can’t wait to read the rest!
Yes, it as a good post. I hope you enjoyed it. Maree
So much truth here Maree! Thanks for sharing.
Pinned, tweeted and will share to the IE Facebook page.
Thanks for linking up at InstaEncouragements!
Patsy, You are so sweet. Thank you for your support. I hope you had a nice break. Maree
Thank you for sharing this post. It was so encouraging. I am learning breath prayer. It slows me down and it is a sweet way to be drawn back to intimacy with the Lover of my soul.
Cheryl, I too have been doing the breath prayers this week. I love it. You are so right; it does slow us down, and it gets my eyes on Jesus. Blessings, Maree
I know I need to redevelop my prayer life. It is so easy to move away from a steady prayer habit. Thanks for the inspiration.
Yes, it is. I find many times my prayers get short and repetitive. My favorite way to pray is through journaling prayers to God. I hope you are having a great week. Maree
Deliberate time in prayer with God daily is so important, you’re the second message on prayer this morning Maree! So I need to stop & see what God is directing! 😀
Blessings,
Jennifer
Jennifer – I love it when God does that. I, too, have read a few things on prayer today. Blessings, Maree
Being with Him whenever and however we can is so crucial. Thank you. laurensparks.net
Lauren – I agree being with God any way we an is what is most important. Maree
Maree, it is so very true that we can get in that habit of cutting our prayer time short. I was just having a conversation this morning about prayer with my youngest daughter. I have come across a few things on prayer this morning, which is definitely working on my heart about my prayer time. I needed this reminder of not cutting corners with my prayer time, thank you!
April, I am so glad this post has penetrated your heart. I love it when God brings a topic from a few angles. Thank you for sharing. Maree
Deborah is such a resource!
And thanks for your thoughts on the primacy of prayer in our day.
Michele, Thank you for stopping by. I agree Deborah is a great resource. Blessings, Maree
These are great ideas. I already use some of them, but I like the idea of trigger prayers. I do pray when I hear a siren for the person who needs help, but I could expand that to praying for others when something reminds me. I also try to pray for prayer requests immediately when I read or hear them during the day.
Barbara – Thank you for sharing. I, too, try to pray right where I am when I hear of prayer requests. Otherwise, if I haven’t written them down in my prayer journal, I most likely won’t remember.
I love that you picked trigger prayers. Praying it goes well.
Blessings, Maree