One of the most important factors in praying is to be a person of prayer before a crisis hits. A crisis is not the time to start praying; it’s the time to keep praying. That isn’t always easy. It’s typically a crisis that drives us to prayer.
When things are just rocking along, we usually don’t feel the need to pray. But we need to pray “in season and out” (2 Tim. 4:2), in good times and bad. Be a praying person before the hurricane blows through your life, and then when it does, you won’t have to try to start praying.
Here are three suggestions to make prayer a daily habit so that you can be prepared for your next crisis.
1. Have a regular prayer time.
Don’t wonder when or if you’ll get to pray again. Have a set time for prayer and ruthlessly protect it. Be as committed to prayer as you are to meals.
2. Have a regular prayer place.
Don’t wonder where you’ll be able to find a quiet place for prayer. Build a location into your discipline of peacetime praying. When your set time for prayer rolls around, be unyielding about staying in your set place.
3. Have a regular prayer plan.
Don’t wonder what you’ll say to God when you pray. Be systematic about your conversations with him. I use my Bible as my daily prayer guide. I can open it on any day and have plenty to talk to God about. Should the Spirit choose to lead me to different subjects, I try to be sensitive and obedient to that. But when I sit down to talk with God, I know where I intend to go. It takes much of the guesswork and wasted time out of my precious moments with God.
Pray in advance, pray before crisis. That way, when the fire does break out in your life, you’ll be prepared to keep right on praying.
