{"id":58789,"date":"2008-02-07T20:12:00","date_gmt":"2008-02-08T02:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=58789"},"modified":"2023-02-07T20:15:52","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T02:15:52","slug":"practical-advice-on-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/practical-advice-on-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"Practical Advice on Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\tby Andree Seu\n

I picked up a little pamphlet from the rack in the foyer of a church I was visiting titled “Squeezing Prayer into a Busy Life.” I could imagine various possible directions for the six pages that would follow. The writer could tell us that if we really loved God we would find time to pray. He could tell us that he himself loves praying more than football. He could tell us that if we don’t pray a lot, maybe we ought to examine ourselves to see if we’re really even Christians at all!<\/p>\n

This particular writer, Jim Auer, takes a different tack. He gently invites us to consider that the problem of time management might mask a few deeper blocks to prayer that we’re unaware of, which he then proceeds to deal with helpfully. At one point he comes up with the idea of using any of the day’s small happenings as grist for the mill of prayer. Example:<\/p>\n

\"\"“Prayer Over Empty Beer Cans Discarded on the Sidewalk: ‘Lord, please be with whoever left these cans. If they drank from sorrow, heal their hurt. If they drank to escape, help them to face their difficulty. . . .”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I like that … Sometimes we spiritual slackers can be helped immensely by a concrete suggestion or two.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Andree Seu I picked up a little pamphlet from the rack in the foyer of a church I was visiting titled “Squeezing Prayer into a Busy Life.” I could imagine various possible directions for the six pages that would follow. The writer could tell us that if we really loved God we would find…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[1510],"class_list":["post-58789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-prayers"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":47026,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-is-the-temple-called-a-house-of-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":58789,"position":0},"title":"Why is the Temple called a house of prayer?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can you tell me what the phrase \"house of prayer\" means from Matthew 21:13?\u00a0 Is this word used as a synecdoche or is it meant to mean literal \"prayer?\"\u00a0 If prayer was not the only thing they did at the temple, could this word have been used to mean\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89816,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/would-you-pray-that-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":58789,"position":1},"title":"Would You Pray that Prayer?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jonathan Banning In Psalm 7, King David makes a shocking petition to God, \"O' Lord my God, if I have done this, if there is injustice in my hands... let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it; and let him trample my life down to the ground and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":62679,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/hannahs-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":58789,"position":2},"title":"Hannah’s Prayer","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: I Samuel 1:9-18 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I Thessalonians 5:17 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It is a short passage, but it isn\u2019t short on meaning. What is meant \u201cwithout ceasing?\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Paul isn\u2019t talking about a 24-hour a day, non-stop prayer. There are other things which must be accomplished in life. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0He is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":56009,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-you-pray\/","url_meta":{"origin":58789,"position":3},"title":"Do You Pray?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bill Hall in The Bulletin of the Church of Christ at New Georgia, September 30, 2007; via The Gospel Observer, December 30, 2007 The worshiper who would pray in the assembly must do more than bow his head and close his eyes. He must pray. \"Otherwise, if you bless\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92254,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/dont-hide-behind-your-prayers\/","url_meta":{"origin":58789,"position":4},"title":"Don\u2019t Hide Behind Your Prayers","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 19, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Clay Gentry We're called to be people of prayer. Jesus Himself taught that we \"ought always to pray and not lose heart\" (Luke 18:1). However, if we are honest, sometimes our prayers are merely a pious way of being inactive. It is easy to hide behind the sincerity of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19458,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/unanswered-prayers\/","url_meta":{"origin":58789,"position":5},"title":"Unanswered Prayers","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 31, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Lewis Willis via\u00a0Guardian of Truth; April 4, 1991; Vol. XXXV, No. 7; pp. 193, 215 When I think of prayer, I think of it as the very essence of the Christian's relationship with God. It is our link of communication with him, as the New Testament is his link\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/prayer-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58789\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}