Many people have a mental picture of prayer. They associate prayer with monks or nuns. When they hear the word, “prayer,” they imagine someone kneeling in a chapel or bowing quietly over folded hands. Those are certainly valid images of prayer, but not particularly exciting ones.
It is possible to pray not only in quiet and serene settings, but also with excitement. Here are a few suggestions:
1) Sing
Musicians know that tempo can both reflect and produce enthusiasm. Sure, you may sing, “Break Thou the Bread of Life” and “Holy, Holy, Holy” in your prayer time. But if you want to pray with excitement, incorporate more upbeat music into your prayers. Try praying the hymn, “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee” or Hillsong Young and Free’s “Alive” to get your heart pumping. And did you know you can sort your music (in iTunes, at least) according to beats-per-minute?
2) Dance
Dance has been a way to pray with excitement since the days of Miriam and David. Even if your only dance moves are from “Sweatin’ to the Oldies,” you can infuse your prayers with excitement by coordinating the movement of your body with the passion of your prayers.
Become an OurPrayer Volunteer and Change the World One Prayer at a Time
3) Fight
The hit movie, The War Room, depicts prayer as a battle and shows the characters writing prayers and recording answers with great vigor and determination. You may even don a couple boxing gloves and play the Rocky theme as you punch off items on your prayer list.
4) March
My friend Dawn leads a ministry in Alabama. She felt inspired to lead her staff of four on a march (Joshua-around-Jericho style) seven times around a building that would have greatly expanded their ministry’s capacity. The next day, however, the building sold to someone else.
A year later, Dawn says, “God laid on my heart that it was time to move out of our present space to make it a space for the homeless. In doing so, He pushed me out of my comfort zone to ask a local church to give us use of their buildings. It was four times larger than our previous space. Not only did they say yes, but God worked it out for us to have the space rent-free in exchange for renovating the space).”
While their initial “prayer march” didn’t bring immediate results, it generated movement that eventually won a great victory.
You may choose to combine two or more of these ways of praying with excitement. You may add calisthenics or bicycling to your prayer routine. Or something else.
However you do it, remember that prayer doesn’t always have to be a placid exercise—as the song of Miriam (Exodus 15), dance of David (1 Chronicles 15), wrestling of Jacob (Genesis 32), and marching of Joshua (Joshua 6) attest.
