I am often asked by people the best way to improve their prayer life. What they are looking for is a book, a sermon, a podcast, or a trick that can take their times of prayer from average to remarkable.  While all of those things are a blessing and an encouragement to our prayer lives, the simple truth is that the only way to get better at prayer is actually to pray. This week’s Take5 devotionals will aim at improving your prayer times with the Lord and stirring your heart toward praying more. I will offer a few different perspectives on how you can bring life back into your prayers but remember that reading about prayer but never praying is a lot like buying books on exercise but never showing up to the gym!

The first way I want to encourage you is through the words of 1 Thessalonians 5:17, which simply read, “Pray without ceasing.”  This command is not meant to be made more complicated or nuanced than it is; it is simply meant to tell us to pray all the time. Pray in the morning and before meals, and before a hard conversation at work. Pray for your kids and your spouse and for what you see on the news.  In short, pray about everything you can, any time you can.

For most of us, that seems so far from our reality that we don’t know where to start, so I hope to offer you a simple place to begin. Put prayer on your calendar once every day.  We put meetings, children’s games, trips, and dentist appointments on our calendars but (and I am guilty of this, too) we, for some reason, don’t think we need to schedule times alone with God.  One of the simplest ways to begin a pattern of regular prayer in 2023 is to put a 15-minute event, repeating every day, on your calendar.  Start there and see what God does in you as you keep regular appointments with Him!

Final Thought: Write 7 prayer times into your calendar as you begin this week.