Too Busy To Pray? Start By Praying Just 5 Minutes Per Day.
As Christians, we all know the importance of praying. When I was first introduced to Christianity during my pre-university school days, I was introduced to prayer. “Praying is the way we communicate with God,” said my roommate, “just come before Him and tell Him all that you need, He will listen and answer.”
I remember those nights, we were tackling our studies during the days and spend hours on school revision after the classes, we pray every night religiously, we pray that God will give us strength and wisdom to cope with endless studies and exams.
After university days, life gets busy, and I’m easily distracted, whether it is due to work or many other activities. Sometimes I pray, sometimes I don’t pray. Sometimes I feel like I am talking to thin air. But God always uses events to pull me closer to Him, and I turn to prayer again. I believe as Christians, we all agree, developing a prayerful life is important. However, I have heard Christians who claim that they do not have the time to commit to pray daily, sometimes I’m one of them.
How long should we pray? When I first engaged in praying, I was encouraged to pray for at least 30 minutes per session, and add on more as I get used to the 30 minutes session. Until recently, I realized there is no actual answer for everyone’s life, and its situation is different. I recently found an excellent way to maintain a prayerful life – I pray 15 minutes in the morning, pray 15 minutes in the evening, and another 15 minutes reading the bible or related books. Of course, there might be times when I spend more time praying or I spend less time praying, sometimes I only spend 5 minutes reading the bible, but the structure is still there.
Sometimes I wake up a bit late, and I pray in the car while I drive to my office, sometimes after work, I hang out with my colleagues, I pray while I was driving. Sometimes I listen to the audio bible during lunch break, one chapter takes about 5 minutes. And yes, sometimes I do miss out on one praying session but I will let it go and continue on the new sessions the next day. You see, developing a prayer lifestyle doesn’t have to be complicated or perfect. It just takes commitment. If you have already practice a prayerful lifestyle, good for you. If not, let’s do it together. Start from 5 minutes per day. Yes, you heard me 5 minutes a day. I encourage you to start by praying 5 minutes a day this week, set aside a time, it could be when you wake up or before you go to bed, or even in your car. You may set the timer for 5 minutes while you pray, and stop at once when the alarm goes off. You don’t have to continue with the prayer unless you really want to, the point is to get you started. You may add another 5 minutes which means 5 minutes in the morning, 5 minutes in the evening/before you go to bed.
See how God responds to your prayer even if it just for 5 minutes, on the second week, you may gradually add on the timing eg. 10 minutes, 15 minutes to your comfort level, or where the holy spirit prompts you to. In case you have slipped out/miss out, don’t worry too much, get back to the track by the grace of God.
I can’t wait to hear your story about what God will be doing once you started to pray, enjoy.