Prayer | Daily Devotional
5 Ways to Grow in Prayer During Coronavirus
As we consider how to make the best use of our current season, I’ve got a question for you: How is your prayer life right now?
Too many times, our prayer life is stale, lame, and meager because we’re missing the larger context of the world and our Father’s work in it. Amid our responsibilities, routines, and sheer scheduling of life, prayer seems to be the one “activity” we leave for another day. Rather than taking advantage of the direct line we have to the very throne room of God our Father, we try to soldier on through one more day on our own.
The mere fact that on virtually every page of Scripture we can find either someone—including Jesus himself—praying, or believers being invited, urged, and instructed on how and why to pray tells us that prayer is not an optional piece to the Christian life.
As John Piper puts it, we often don’t pray because we don’t realize we’re at war.
Prayer is the walkie-talkie on the battlefield of the world. It calls in for the accurate location of the target of the Word. It calls in to ask for the protection of air cover. It calls in to ask for fire power to blast open a way for the tanks of the Word of God. It calls in the miracle of healing for the wounded soldiers. It calls in supplies for the forces. And it calls in the needed reinforcements.
This is the meaning of the amazing Word of the Lord in Matthew 9:38. “Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Reinforcements come into the missionary enterprise when the churches know they are in a war, and when they bow down in their trenches with bullets flying overhead and get on their walkie-talkies and cry out for more troops.
This is the place of prayer - on the battlefield of the world. It is a wartime walkie-talkie, not a domestic intercom to increase the comforts of the saints. It malfunctions in the hands of soldiers who have gone AWOL.
Brothers and sisters, wouldn’t you love to emerge from the coronavirus cocoon with a reinvigorated prayer life? I know that’s one thing I’m praying for during this strange season. With that in mind, here are five ways you can grow in prayer during COVID-19.
1. Praying through the Lord’s Prayer
When his barber reached out with the question of how to grow in prayer, the great reformer Martin Luther wrote a letter that’s in print as “A Simple Way to Pray.” In it, Luther explained that each day, he would pray out loud through each petition of the Lord’s Prayer, taking each piece as a cue to delve deeper in prayer.
For instance, here’s how Luther explained he would start:
Repeat a part of the First Petition, or as much as you want. For example, say, “Hallowed be Thy name” and then say, “Oh yes, Lord God, dear Father, hallowed be Thy name, indeed! Make it holy among us and throughout the world. Destroy and root out [false teaching] … Convert those who would still be converted, that they with us, and we with them, sanctify and praise Your holy name, with true, pure doctrine and good holy living…”
2. Praying through Scripture
Taking a page from Luther’s approach above, observe and do a simple study of a portion of Scripture, then pray through the specifics of that text.
Have you been wrestling with anxiety in this season? Pull up Matthew 6:25-34 (not too far from the Lord’s Prayer, it turns out) and pray through what our Savior tells us about His care for us. Thank Him for the depth and intimacy of His care for you.
Rejoice that no matter what you may have felt this morning, you are indeed worth far more than many sparrows. Ask the Lord to give you courage and clarity to move forward free from anxiety, fully convinced of His love for you and His gracious approval of you.
3. Praying through “ACTS” acronym
Adoration. Again, starting with Scripture—even a simple verse or two—look for ways you can worship the Lord, adoring and expressing your praise to Him. The work of eternity is people from every tribe, tongue, nation, and people gathered around the throne, worshipping the Lord for who He is. How is His praise-worthiness expressed in this passage, and how is He bringing more reasons for worship to mind?
Confession. We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of this amazing God who created us in His image to worship and submit to Him in joyful obedience. Yet, we’ve made a play for that same glory, cut off our relationship with God, and turned inward in the process. How are these truths shown in the text? What can you confess to the Lord about your words, actions, and thoughts of the last 24 hours? 24 minutes?
Thanksgiving. Thank God, He did not leave us in our sin. He sent His own Son to rescue the very people who cried out, “Crucify him! We have no other king but Caesar!” I’m responsible for the worst injustice that has ever been carried out, and I did it to the very God whose love for me is unfathomably deep and wide. I deserve nothing, yet as a child of God, I possess everything. Where are there reminders and hints of this in the text?
Supplication. Before coronavirus, we were surrounded by need. Physically, financially, spiritually, our world is a broken place filled with broken people in desperate need of a Savior. Coronavirus hasn’t changed that, but it has amplified it in many ways. How can we be praying that God would act through this situation and all others around us, so that His “kingdom [would] come” and His “will [would] be done on earth as it is in heaven”?
4. Praying in outward motion
Along the lines of the “supplication” section above, pray for the needs of those around you, starting with those closest to you. What do you need? What about your spouse? Your kids? Your neighbors? Your brothers and sisters at New City Fellowship? People in our city with physical, financial, and spiritual needs? What about those in our state, our nation, globally? How might God bring His kingdom to bear more in our world than we presently see it?
Habakkuk 2:14 says, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” How might God be using this moment to bring about this incredible purpose?
Also, don’t forget about praying for those with difficult decisions to make. In 1 Timothy 2:1-2, we’re urged to pray “for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions.” There’s no better time than now to get in the habit of praying for those in authority. A helpful way is to start by praying for your own family and moving outward—New City Fellowship leaders and elders, city and county elected officials, state officials, national leaders. These men and women need wisdom and humility, two things our Father is more than willing to give.
5. Praying with other believers
We could mention dozens more approaches to prayer, but one more to leave you with: Remember to pray with other believers. Going back to Old Testament leaders like Ezra and Nehemiah, running through our Savior’s words and into New Testament letters like Hebrews, there’s a unique power to the people of God calling out to Him together.
Don’t waste your quarantine by waiting for it to end when you could be hopping on Zoom or Facetime and praying with your brothers and sisters. And don’t just talk about prayer or share prayer requests either; take the lead and boldly approach the throne of grace.
May our God continue to richly supply us with everything we need for life and godliness. He who promises is faithful, strong, and waiting for us to approach Him in prayer.