I’ve mentioned to a number of friends what a significant impact the book A Praying Life by Paul Miller has had on me in the last three months. It’s now the book I recommend and give away the most often. God used it in significant ways to change me and draw me to Jesus.
I’ve tried prayer systems that I’ve concocted that I haven’t stuck with. I’ve wanted to be a better pray-er, but I often felt helpless and defeated. Miller suggested a simple system of 3×5 note cards with a person’s name on each card alongside a few requests and a specific verse of scripture. That simple system has worked for me, and I reference the cards multiple times per week. Here are my cards, based mostly on Miller’s suggestions:
- 13 family cards (a combination of individuals and extended sides of the family)
- 1 marriage card (for close friends of ours who are married, all listed on one card)
- 1 work card (things I’m praying would be true in our work)
- 1 repentance card (with 5 things/sins I’m praying God would stomp out in my life)
- 2 ministry cards (for ministries we support, and one specifically for Slovenia)
- 1 dream card (things I’m trusting The Lord for in my life that are fully impossible without him)
- 1 top 10 list (of people I’m praying would come to know Jesus)
Twenty cards that take around 15 minutes to pray through, with a number of specific requests on each. It’s been a delight to see the Lord already answering a number of those prayers in the last three months. This way of praying alone makes the book worth the read. But wait! There’s more.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes that have significantly changed my thinking.
When you realize you can’t do life on your own, then prayer makes complete sense.
I’ve recently discovered that I’m not ultimately in control. So it makes sense to ask the One who is control to be in control and let Him handle the results.
Our dislike of asking is rooted in our desire for independence.
Ouch. We don’t ask because we, again, want to be our own god.
“Prayer doesn’t work” often means “You don’t do my will, in my way, in my time.”
Sounds about right.
Prayer is where I do my best work in every role of life.
This constantly comes to mind for me now. I can’t give enough advice, preach enough mini-sermons or deliver enough rebukes to make the impact I can with prayer. So instead of opening my mouth, I turn to God in prayer.
The praying life is inseparable from obeying, loving, waiting and suffering.
Prayer leads us down this path of obedience, love, patience and suffering, and all these things are ultimately good for us in the long-run.
My biggest takeaways
Here are the two things that have most profoundly impacted me from this book.
1. Dependence on the Lord.
I can’t change my heart. I can’t change someone else’s heart. I can only trust the Lord to do those things, and so I pray. I pray God would change my often ugly, bitter heart and create in me a clean heart.
2. I pray instead of correct
When someone frustrates or angers or disappoints me, instead of lashing out or jumping to correct them, I pray. I pray that God would reveal and destroy that sin they have committed not just in their life but in my life too. I pray he would change their heart and their attitude as well as my own. And it works.
If I feel led tos ay something after I’ve prayed, I will. But I pray first, and I correct if and only if the Lord prompts me to after prayer. That’s the correct order, I’m sure. And one that drastically needed corrected in my life.