What is the difference between a prayer life, and a praying life?
Susie and Jennifer Kennedy Dean discuss Jennifer’s book, Live a Praying Life.
The path to vibrant prayer, Jennifer says, comes out of an earnest surrender to Christ.
“When I completely turned my focus to the Lord and completely cried out to him, ‘Whatever you want from me, here I am!’ I found in that moment I had been infected with a passion.”
When she threw away the trite trappings of religion, the gimmicks and the polished performance, then she found that God was there to be with her. Then she was in real relationship.
As her passion for relational prayer with God was ignited, she realized the distinction between a prayer life and a praying life. A prayer life is one where prayer is sandwiched between other responsibilities. Prayer is an item on a checklist. In contrast, a praying life is one with an undercurrent of prayer. Sometimes it’s articulated in words and sentences, sometimes not but always there.
• Jennifer offers tips for changing from having a prayer life to having a praying life;
• Don’t just think of prayer as what goes between “Dear God” and “Amen”
• Think about prayer as an ongoing relationship
• Come to realize that you have been praying even when you haven’t been defining it as prayer
• Dig into what Scripture says about prayer
• Pray Scripture to God so he can activate it in your heart
• See prayer as an ongoing and looser activity. God is not grading the amount of time we sit in a chair with our eyes closed.
• Do schedule specific, intense time dedicated to prayer
• Find a balance between continual prayer and devoted prayer
Key Scripture: Jeremiah 24:7, Proverbs 9:10
