The role of praying in the personal life is difficult to be overestimated because a prayer is a way to communicate with God, and it can reflect the nature of the person’s relationship with the divine forces. In spite of the fact that a religious person usually has the developed skills in praying because it is a part of his or her daily life, it is necessary to improve the prayer life when a person sets objectives to make praying more efficient and even beneficial for the spiritual growth.
Praying can be discussed as one of the most inspirational activities during the day, and a person needs to pay some attention to analyzing how he or she prays in order to become more proficient in this type of communication with God. Therefore, this paper aims to present the discussion of readings in forming the vision of a prayer’s importance and to provide the plan for improving the prayer’s life with the focus on several aspects that are critical for the spiritual growth.
How the Readings and Discussions Can Be Helpful to Develop the Plan
Readings studied during the course and completed discussions provide a significant background to direct and influence the self-analysis related to the importance and effectiveness of the prayer life. In order to become able to evaluate the qualities of the personal approach to praying, it is essential to focus on the ideas presented by theologians and famous spiritual leaders who share their praying experience in the books studied during the course.
The Impact of Neil Anderson’s Ideas
Thus, in his book, Neil Anderson states that praying has the significant protective power, and a prayer should be daily and be associated with every activity and event in the person’s life. The book also demonstrates how the prayer helps accentuate the person’s dependence on God, and why it is necessary to think about everyday emotions, feelings, and experiences.
I started to refer to Anderson’s book many times during my typical day because the book includes not only discussions of the meaning of prayers in life, but it also includes the specific prayer for almost each daily activity1. As a result, I can see how I can pray many times a day while developing my spirituality and praising God. In addition, I can analyze how I can follow my strict daily plan in praying without forgetting about the routine tasks.
The book had a significant impact on my vision of praying because now I discuss praying as a usual activity that also needs improving as any other task or daily routine in my life. However, in contrast to usual activities like study, work, or communication with friends, praying influences each moment of my life because I see how I can grow spiritually and how beneficial a prayer can be.
Dave Earley’s Work and Impact
If the book by Anderson provides practical hints that can be used for daily praying, the book by Dave Earley is important to add more theological discussions and explanations to the role of the prayer in the personal life. Presenting the valuable analysis of praying, Earley focuses on the praying experience of spiritual leaders.
According to the author, each spiritual leader has its unique approach to praying. Focusing on this idea, Earley states, “It is my conclusion and conviction that prayer is the timeless, and often overlooked, secret to high-impact spiritual leadership”2.
Therefore, praying can be considered as important for everyone’s growth in terms of spirituality and religiosity. The author also notes that those persons who are experienced in praying are inclined to pray much time; they pray not only for themselves but also for other people and for resolving their specific problems; and they “pray with greater boldness”3.
Therefore, this book inspired me to develop my plan for growth while focusing on finding more time for a prayer as well as for learning how to pray effectively for other people and how to pray with ‘boldness’.
Samuel Gordon’s Visions and Their Impact on My Prayer Life
The reading of the book written by Samuel Gordon was a unique experience for me because I could realize how a prayer can influence my everyday life and why it is really important to improve the personal approach to praying. Gordon states in his book that the great people are those ones who pray regularly.
Gordon explains, “I do not mean those who talk about prayer; nor those who say they believe in prayer; nor yet those who can explain about prayer; but I mean these people who take time and pray”4. I can state that I received the opportunity to think about the role of finding the time for praying again, and it was a kind of the important driving force for me.
In this context, the most convincing phrase found in the book was that “there are people that put prayer first, and group the other items in life’s schedule around and after prayer”5. Thus, I began to think about my opportunities to organize my life “around and after prayer”6.
I should also state that the more I read the book, the more I understood the importance of my decision to focus on praying much and praising God during the right time. I was persistent, and I found the explanation to the importance of praying in the following words of the author: “This spirit-telegraphy called prayer puts a man into direct dynamic touch with a planet”7.
I have realized that to improve my prayer life, I need to organize all my activities after a daily prayer in order to receive God’s blessing first.
Jerry Rankin’s Views
The above-mentioned books helped me understand how to organize my life in order to pay much attention to praying and how to practice praying every day in order to receive the satisfaction and to contribute to my spiritual growth. However, the different experience was associated with reading and analyzing the book written by Jerry Rankin.
I focused on the opportunity to consider praying as the statement of God’s role in my life and as the opportunity to oppose Satan in the daily life8. I have understood that I am able to ignore the evil forces and to become victorious only when I pray for protection, for other people, and for blessing.
Referring to Rankin’s ideas, I have realized that I need to ask God for blessing and opportunities for the spiritual growth every day in my life. Furthermore, I should remember that a prayer is important for confessing my sins. Thus, while reading the book written by Rankin, I could focus on the aspects in my prayer life that required the improvement.
A Plan for Growth in Various Aspects of the Personal Prayer Life
Praying is important in order to worship God, ask for the help, and demonstrate the confession. Therefore, the improvement of the praying practice is the main task while focusing on the advancement of the personal prayer life.
In order to become satisfied with the efforts made during the daily praying practice, it is important to concentrate on completing the following objective: To improve the daily praying practice while focusing on such aspects as worship, confession, thanksgiving, and praying for others as well as such points as the time of praying and the purpose of praying.
Steps of the Plan
Certain steps and actions need to be taken in order to complete the determined objective. These steps are the following ones:
- reflection on the aspects of a prayer and the thinking about the used personal formulas or phrases that are typical for my prayers;
- the determination of the time set for praying every day of my life;
- the formulation of the clear purpose for each prayer in order to meet personal expectations;
- the implementation of the plan of praying daily as the part of my life.
Indicators of My Personal Success
In order to understand that the objective is completed and the expected outcome such as the improved personal praying practice is achieved, it is necessary to set certain indicators that are important to indentify while monitoring my personal progress in the prayer’s life.
Thus, the reflection on the parts of praying and the contents of prayers can be discussed as successful when a prayer includes such particular elements as worshiping God, thanksgiving, asking for answers and assistance, confession, and praying for the others. It is necessary to focus on possible personal sins in order to confess, to thank for God’s mercy, and to ask God to help other people who need help and support on their life path because I need to view a prayer as my communication with God and I should concentrate on the really important aspects.
The second step is the organizational process. The daily praying practice can become a significant shift to improving the everyday life only when there is enough time for praying and reflecting on the received experience. This part of the plan can be viewed as completed when the time for daily praying will include no less than two hours for morning and evening prayers.
These hours do not include the prayers uttered before reading the Bible or prayers spoken on daily events. My goal is to pray in the morning, before starting all other activities, and in the evening, remembering the events for which it is necessary to thank God.
The third step means that each prayer is not the formal worshipping necessary because of the religious rules followed in my family, but it is a kind of my personal communication with God. Therefore, each prayer needs to have the spiritual purpose. I should pay more attention to praying for my family and friends as well as for people in need.
It is possible to expect that my life will become better, if I concentrate on praying for others. In addition, the indicator of my success will be my possibility to encourage other people to pray for individuals and nations.
The final important step is the daily implementation of the developed plan. The main outcome of this step will be my faithful daily praying in the morning and in the evening. It is planned to spend these hours praising God and focusing on the important religious questions as well as on confessing sins in order to grow in terms of the spiritual development.
As a result of the plan implementation, it will be possible to pay more attention to the successful and beneficial praying that can lead to the spiritual growth and to the improvement of my personal life as a prayer.
Conclusion
The information learnt with the focus on course texts and discussions is important to help me understand the aspects of my prayer life in order to develop a specific plan for the improvement. Focusing on the information from read books, I could develop each step of my plan in order to practice all important pieces of advice found in the readings.
It was important for me to support my plan with the aspects from the books written by theologians and spiritual leaders whose experience can be discussed as inimitable in this sphere. Therefore, while formulating the objective for the development and discussing the appropriate steps, I chose to refer to the thoughts and ideas of these great thinkers, and the learnt information influenced my vision and approach significantly.
As a result of this experience, I became able to formulate the efficient plan to follow daily and to contribute to my spiritual growth.
Bibliography
Anderson, Neil. The Bondage Breaker: Overcoming Negative Thoughts, Irrational Feelings, Habitual Sins. Sisters, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2006.
Earley, Dave. Prayer: The Timeless Secret of High-Impact Leaders. Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2008.
Gordon, Samuel, Quiet Talks on Prayer. Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers, 2003.
Rankin, Jerry. Spiritual Warfare: The Battle for God’s Glory. Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Groups, 2009.
Footnotes
1 Neil Anderson, The Bondage Breaker: Overcoming Negative Thoughts, Irrational Feelings, Habitual Sins (Sisters, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2006), 38.
2 Dave Earley, Prayer: The Timeless Secret of High-Impact Leaders (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2008), x.
3 Earley, Prayer, 111.
4Samuel Gordon, Quiet Talks on Prayer (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers, 2003), 12.
5 Gordon, Quiet Talks on Prayer, 12.
6 Ibid., 12.
7Ibid., 17.
8 Jerry Rankin, Spiritual Warfare: The Battle for God’s Glory (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Groups, 2009), 24.