“Prayer delights God’s ear; it melts His heart; and opens His hand. God cannot deny a praying soul” Thomas Watson

In that past few posts, I have shared with you how Selah can help you reclaim your quiet time. By now, some of you may have guessed what I am about to confess to you.

The Selah method of Bible study was created because I have struggled with EVERY aspect of having a consistent time with God each day.  And you know what?

Prayer is a struggle for me because I do it so imperfectly. Maybe you have this problem too?

List Prayers

As a person who is a list maker, I have observed that sometimes my prayer is looking a lot like a grocery list containing what I want from God, similar to the list I carry to the grocery store. Other times, I notice prayer becomes the creation of a mental laundry list of all things I have done wrong and wanted to confess to the Lord. And at other times, my prayers might sound a great deal like a to-do list as I ask for guidance and assistance to help me accomplish life’s daily tasks.

Mind Wanders

The hymnist summed up this problem of the meandering mind in this phrase, “prone to wander, Lord I feel it prone to leave the God I love.” One moment I will be pouring out my heart to God and the next I fixate upon what I will make for dinner or a specific color that might work well as an accent in my living room.  As I pray, I find my mind moseys away from the eternal to the temporal.

Limited Vocabulary

For a woman who was known as “motor mouth” and “babbling brook” as a child, I find as an adult when I pray my words become limited.  Enough said.

Can you identify? Do you similarly approach prayer? Are you longing for a fresh more intimate way to speak with God?

Recently, I have been challenged to pray the Scriptures while using a tool I was introduced to years ago. The women who first discipled me taught me a straightforward method of how to pray called ACTS. It is a simple four-part way to pray.  While this tool was helpful for a time, I have to admit it soon grew stale.  That is until I applied it to the portion of scripture I was meditating on all week in my Selah study as the framework.

This model helps me deal with my tendencies to make lists, meander and clam up when I pray. It might help you too! Now, I have a whole new language in which to pray and you can too!

Right now, I am thinking you are probably a great deal like me…you struggle with prayer! You start making lists, your mind rambles and you discover you have very few words to converse with the Creator of the Universe.  In the next post, I want to show you exactly how you CAN worship God through praying  Psalm 119:1-8.