My friend in college got me into running. We ran the annual half-marathon at our school, and my goal then was to train to run long distances.
We would train for a race, and then stop until it was the appropriate time to start training for the next one, so each time I had an uphill battle getting those first few miles under my belt.
I started running with an app about a year ago, and I’m not running long, but I’m running hard and regularly. What I am finding in the interval training is that when I want to go on a long run outside, even if I haven’t run long for quite some time, my body is prepared.
I think the same thing is true with prayer. Now yes, if I could run for two hours a day and pray for two hours a day, would that be “better”? Maybe. But I think it is the regularity and the focus that makes more of a difference.
In your days, it may not be possible to get up and pray for an hour, or even for twenty minutes. But could you pray for three minutes?
When I run with the app, it doesn’t take me long to get going because I am not searching for a program. I make a couple of clicks, and I’m off running. If we have a system for how we pray and what we are praying, connecting with God can work that way as well.
Set a timer, pick a place, decide what you are going to do, write down what you’re asking. Make it regular.
I have a circle rug that I kneel and pray on, so I get out of bed and kneel on that rug before anything else happens. I find that then I’m ready for the days I may have more time because God and I have been talking. I can also pray for a friend more easily because opening that connection is like saying, “Hi God, we talked earlier. This friend, she needs You…would You come here.”
It’s easier to be more regular if we have a standing appointment. My friend sets alarms on her phone at different times during the day. One of those times is for me, and I have seen the regularity of her prayers change my life.
Try some different options and see what works for you. For me, it seems that the small periods, with regularity, make a difference in how I approach my days and my connection with God, in how I see Him, and in how He answers. If our prayers deploy the power of God, then I want to be deploying that power, regularly in little sprints all day long, and when the long runs come, I’ll be ready.
HLLF,
