I have written some advises of how you can change your prayer life, if you find it boring. These are not the only right answers, but things I have personally been found helpful.
1. Consider you prayer posture
To adjust your posture can help you be more enduring in prayer. Neither sitting nor kneeling nor walking nor any other posture is sacred. God listens anyway. However, some postures allow your attention to drift more easily. Lets look at some of the postures used in the Bible for praying:
Psalm 63:5
5My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
Psalm 95:6
6Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;
Psalm 99:9
9Exalt the LORD our God and worship at his holy mountain, for the LORD our God is holy.
The posture I have been trained to have is sitting on a chair with bowed head and folded hands. If this posture makes you sleepy, or makes it hard to concentrate, you may want to do something differently. One advice is to pray walking around (it is hard to fall asleep while walking). Another is to pray out loud. Then you will be more aware of what you are praying, and will be able to word your prayer better.
I often start my prayers by playing some praise music while I walk around and sing along or pray out loud. Often with proclamations about who God is. I also use my new tongues a lot.
Finding prayers in the Bible is many times a good thing. Do not just read through them though, but pray them out loud with your own words. For example, if you have found Psalm 23 you can pray: Thank you God, for being my shepherd. I shall not want. And so on.
However, remember that the posture is not the most important, but your hearts attitude!
2. Desire the baptism of the Holy Spirit
(for more on this point see also my lecture about the Holy Spirit).
When you are baptized in the Spirit you will receive a new prayer language. It is called speaking in tongues (for your own edification).
When you became a Christian you received a new Spirit and a new life inside of you. To be baptized in the Spirit means to liberate this life in you. (Joh 7:38)
Praying in tongues at least helps you with two things: When you run out of word, you can shift to tongues and still continue to pray. That is because you Spirit, who communicates through tongues with the Holy Spirit, never runs out of words. And, the Spirit helps us pray according to God’s heart. (Rom 8:26)
Praying in tongues edifies you. 1Chror 14:4
4He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church.
The best thing you can do when a day is blue and difficult is to start praying in tongues, because then you will be edified. This has been my experience many times. Praying in tongues is to speak secrets with God.
That means among other things that the Devil will not understand what you pray for.
3. Start looking at yourself as God looks at you
Many Christians struggle with condemnation. They feel they should have prayed more, read more in the Bible, and witnessed more. They feel they are not good enough at what they are doing. They may say, “I should have done so much better, but I did not.”
One of the reasons for condemnation is a wrong perception of God. Many feel that “if I do not pray enough or do stuff good enough, good will not be satisfied with me.” This is far from the truth!
The truth is that God is just as satisfied with you either if you pray a minute or an hour. He loves you anyway. His highest desire is to have friendship with you, but He will never come with demands. It is your choice.
Nothing you do any time can stop God loving you!
There is nothing you can do to make Him love you more!
But still remember that you can turn your back on God. It is all your choice!
Here are some scriptures about how God looks at you:
Zeph 3:17
17The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."
Is 43:1-5
But now, this is what the LORD says-- he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
2When you pass through the waters I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.
3For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your stead.
4Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you, and people in exchange for your life.
Is 62:5
…as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.
We can also add some scriptures from the Song of Solomon as this book talk about love in a fantastic way. As we read above God looks at us as a bride. With the same passionate love as the groom loves his bride, God loves us. Let us look at Song of Solomon chapter 2:10-14:
10My lover spoke and said to me,
"Arise, my darling,
my beautiful one, and come with me.
11See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone.
12Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves is heard in our land.
13The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.
Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me."
14My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places on the mountainside,
show me your face, let me hear your voice;
for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.
Even though most Christians believe that God loves them and often cites that they are saved by grace, they still feel condemned and rejected by God. What can be the causes for this?
Authorities and people we are associated with influence us all. Parents, teachers, priests/pastors, colleagues and friends all to some extent influence us. If you have repeatedly felt being rejected by some of these people, a consequence may be that you will project this happening onto God. This is a possible cause. If that is the case for you, you have to start over again, and acknowledge who God really is and how He looks at you.
Remember that there is always room for you on God’s schedule, and He listens to your prayers!
4. Always live in the light
If you have not dealt with the sin in your life, you will not be able to have fellowship with God. It will hinder you confidence in God’s presence.
1Joh 3:21
21Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God
Every time you inter into prayer always admit the sins you are aware of. Pray that the Holy Spirit will show you what you ought to repent from. And when you have admitted your sins, then you have fellowship with God.
Let not the devil make you think otherwise.
1Joh 1:5-10
5This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
8If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
If you are struggling with a sin in your life that you often fall in, remember that Jesus conquered this sin for you. Therefore the power, which is within you, is strong enough to conquer it, through God’s Spirit living in you. If you pray when you have fallen: “You know that I have committed this same sin again. I realize that if I depend on Your help, and I want to repent and fight against the sin” then you live in the light and will be able to have fellowship with God.
5. Do not be controlled by feelings and emotions
As most Christians you have probably experienced being at some church camp, conference, retreat or something similar where you have strongly been met by God and ignited to serve Him. You make a decision that from now on that everything will be different. You will spend much more time in prayer and read more in the Bible and witness more. Usually it lasts for a couple of days before you encounter a defeat or some problems. Then you experience that all the good feelings quickly disappear. Hence, since the good feelings are history, you are starting drifting back to the old habits. If you recognize this pattern, you are most likely controlled by your feelings. An interesting question to ask is that if it is God or my feeling that disappear? The truth is off course that it is your feelings, because God is always there.
Rom 10:8:
8But what does it say? "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming:
Many Christians talk to God in a manner which suggest that He is far away in Heaven, instead of a person next to them. They speak to Him, instead of with Him. But God is not distant! He is with your side by His Holy Spirit, and you can talk to Him just like to any person. The reason why many have problems talking to God this way is that it feels unnatural to speak to someone invisible, or that they feel that God is distant.
Start praying even if you do not feel like it. If you experience trouble starting to pray one advise can be to start by singing or by playing songs that you may have learned at a church camp, or retreat or something and that help you experience God’s presence.
When feelings diminish and condemnation enters, resist!
6. Withstand in the evil day
Eph 6:13
13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
1Pet 5:8-9
8Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
Train yourself to be able to withstand in the evil day. We have an enemy who does not want us to pray and who will do everything in his power to hinder that we do so. He can even tell you that God did something when He did not. He, the devil, is an expert making us feel bitter, give us a spirit of fear or make us feeling sorry for our self, so that there will be no inspiration or power left to pray.
One of his traps is to say that everything that happens it is the will of God. This is plain Christian fate theology.
Christian fate theology steals the joy of praying. Why should we pray if God has His way anyway? Why withstand in the evil day? If we did so, would we not be withstanding God?
The devil could also present thought like: “To pray is boring, what is the point? Nothing will happen if you pray. Remember when you prayed for healing, and the time when you prayed that Per from your work would accept Jesus? You became even sicker and Per became even more hostile to what you said. God does not listen to your prayers, so there is no point in praying.”
Another example is when you return from a church camp or conference and are “on fire” for Jesus, and you meet everyday blues. Then the devil presents thoughts like “now you are a lazy Christian again, nothing has changed and God is distant. If you pay attention to your feeling, they will confirm this.” All this is not God’s truth. I could have added several examples, but it all boils down to: Withstand in the evil day!
How should we withstand in the evil day? The first thing to do is to know the truth. For instance, if you are influenced by Christian fate theology, you need to realize that the Devil brings evil, not God. The Devil does not want God’s way with your life to come to pass, he will do everything he can do to hinder it.
Therefore it is crucial to know the truth, because the truth shall set you free!
Joh 8: 31-32
31To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
Joh 17:17
17Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world
The truth is in the Bible. Many lies have their roots in someone making theories based on experience. For example, if someone have prayed for healing and experienced that they were not healed, they may have made their own theory that their sickness is God’s will. But this is not the truth.
Acts 10:38:
38how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.
The sword in the spiritual armor (Eph 6:17) is the attacking weapon. It is an offensive weapon actively used in a war. If you are not trained in using it you will sacrifice looses due to the enemy’s cunning attacks. You use the sword by confessing and believing in the word of God.
7. Confessing of the truth
All truths found in the Bible can be useful, if you stick to them, and confess them.
Heb 4:2:
2For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.
If, after you have fallen and prayed God for forgiveness, and Satan still attacks you with his lies, which make you fell condemned, you should confess the truth. Confess: “I thank you God for making me clean and righteous in front of you, thank you for not remembering my sins” (confess Psalm 103).
When you encounter adversity and problems remember to confess who is the Lord over the challenges. Let us examine some scriptures from the chapter we read from above, Rom 10:8-9
8But what does it say? "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,"D that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: 9That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
This scripture is not only for those who have not accepted Christ yet. The word used for salvation is wider than “just” receiving eternal life. Among other things, it also means whole, healthy, not injured, keep, safe, and leads into a spacious place, out of adversity.
If you experience fear, confess this scripture in the following way: “When I confess you Jesus as Lord over my fear I will be led out of this fear. Thank you Jesus for being the Lord over my fear.”
Confess that Jesus is the Lord over all your problems!
Diligently quote scriptures when you pray as it will increase your faith to conquer the problems.
Someone once claimed “We cannot confess everything positive, because if we get our expectations up and nothing happen, we will lose our courage.” I believe it to be crucial to confess God’s will in every situation, even though we do not experience it at the time. Endurance is a spiritual weapon, and endurance is the same as faith.
Stick your faith to God’s word! Then your trust and confidence will grow. To confess the truth will increase your faith, if you endure.
