A Daily Habit of Prayer

Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still.
—Psalm 4:4

How can we develop the habit of prayer just like Jesus did and experience God’s power in our life? Last time we looked at two practical ways to develop a praying heart: keep prayer simple, and write out your prayers. Today we will see two more ways you can develop a praying heart.

Number three, start and end your day with prayer. My late accordion teacher, who used to be a vaudeville performer, told me something I’ve never forgotten. He said, “Robert, remember this: as long as you get the first note right and the last note right, everything in between is pure fluff.” I thought that was good advice.

You know, that applies to our days as well. How you begin the day and how you end the day determines how everything else in between goes. The Bible encourages us to begin our day with prayer. In Psalm 5:3, David said, “In the morning, O Lord, You will hear my voice; in the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.” David began his day in prayer. But notice also that David ended his day in prayer. Look at Psalm 4:4–5. David said, “Tremble, and do not sin; meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and trust in the Lord.” Now remember, David’s bed was the place that marked his great sin with Bathsheba. Yet David turned his bed from a bed of sin to an altar of righteousness. He said, “From this point on, I’m going to make my last activity at night praying to God, confessing my sins, and asking for His blessing in my life. I’m going to make my bed an altar of righteousness.” Isn’t that a great thought? Your bed can actually be an altar from which you offer up sacrifices of righteousness to God. How you begin the day and how you end the day determines how you spend the rest of the day.

In the morning before your feet hit the ground out of bed, take a few moments and talk to your heavenly Father. Ask Him for His favor throughout the day. Ask for protection for your family. Ask for wisdom in the decisions you make. And before you drift off to sleep at night, make your final thoughts a prayer to God, reviewing the day with Him, confessing anything you wish you had done differently, asking for His protection through the night.

Number four, redeem those random moments in your life. If you’re like me, you go from one thing to another, from a meeting to this activity to that activity. But there is some in-between time as you’re driving or waiting for the next scheduled thing. Instead of frittering away that time or listening to the mindless chatter of talk radio, redeem those random moments and use them to talk to your heavenly Father.

Prayer is like breathing. You’ll find the more that you pray, the more you’ll want to pray. I read not long ago about a Hollywood actress who went to a gala affair and fainted on the red carpet. Everybody rushed around her. Finally, they revived her. They said, “What happened?” She smiled and said, “I forgot to breathe.” Sound ridiculous? No more so than forgetting to pray.

Prayer really does make a difference in our lives.

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Today’s devotion is excerpted from “Developing a Trusting Heart” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2008.
Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.