{"id":792058,"date":"2022-12-12T05:00:54","date_gmt":"2022-12-12T11:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?p=792058"},"modified":"2022-12-11T15:16:40","modified_gmt":"2022-12-11T21:16:40","slug":"five-ways-i-am-eliminating-perfunctory-prayer-in-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/five-ways-i-am-eliminating-perfunctory-prayer-in-my-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Ways I Am Eliminating Perfunctory Prayer in My Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

I struggle with my prayer life.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am inconsistent too much. And even when I am consistent with a prayer time, I find myself distracted often.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the bigger struggles I\u2019ve had with my prayer is perfunctory prayer. For me perfunctory prayer is a minimal effort to connect with God. At best, I am going through the motions. At worst, I tell someone I will pray for them, but I don\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n

Recently, I made five changes that have moved me toward a more robust prayer life. Yes, I still have a long way to go. Still, these five changes give me hope that my prayer life will be more meaningful and less perfunctory.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

1. When I tell someone I will pray for them, I really pray for them. <\/b>I am ashamed to think of the number of times I told someone I will pray for them, but I don\u2019t follow through. I am lying to the person I promised, and I am lying to God. I\u2019ve asked God to give me a greater awareness of this sin in my life, so I don\u2019t repeat it.<\/span><\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

2. I have stopped using \u201cprayer\u201d in my greetings and other incidental conversations. <\/b>Here is what I mean. I\u2019ve written emails where I say something like, \u201cI pray your year is going well.\u201d Sadly, I did not really pray for that person to have a great year. I used prayer as a figure of speech. Such words on my part minimize and trivialize prayer.\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

3. When someone asks me to pray for them, I do so on the spot if possible.<\/b> Instead of merely affirming I will pray for someone who requests prayer from me, I do so on the spot. Again, I am ashamed to think how many times I responded affirmatively to prayer requests but forgot about them.\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

4. I use a prayer app. <\/b>So that I truly remember to pray for people, I enter the prayer need on a prayer app. Now, when I have my prayer time, I am able to see those prayer requests one by one. I am also able to see all the answers to my prayers. There are several prayer apps available. I use Echo Prayer.<\/span><\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

5. I will not talk about my prayer life to make me look more spiritual. <\/b>My prayer life has a long way to go. If I hint in any way that I am some super saint with an unmatched prayer life, I am lying. I still struggle with prayer. I just want to struggle less.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

For years I used the ACTS acronym to guide my prayer life: adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication. Several years ago, I moved confession to the beginning of my prayer time. It was my own conviction that I needed to confess my sins first before I could get into other areas of prayer. So now my order of prayer is confession, adoration, thanksgiving, intercession (for others), and supplication (for me). I admit, though, that CATIS is not a very memorable acronym.<\/span><\/p>\n

I would love to hear from you about your prayer life. I learn so much when I listen to other believers to hear how God is working in their lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I struggle with my prayer life. I am inconsistent too much. And even when I am consistent with a prayer time, I find myself distracted often.\u00a0 One of the bigger struggles I\u2019ve had with my prayer is perfunctory prayer. For me perfunctory prayer is a minimal effort to connect with God. At best, I am…","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":792167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"0","publish_post_category":"1","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,183,184,175,14796],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-792058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-answers","category-communications","category-discipleship","category-grow","category-monday-wednesday-featured"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFive Ways I Am Eliminating Perfunctory Prayer in My Life | Church Answers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One of the bigger struggles I\u2019ve had with my prayer is perfunctory prayer. 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