Day 1 - Prepare Yourself for a Season of Prayer

Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10

How still are you? Even when your body is still, how still is your mind and spirit? Even when you sit quietly, do so many thoughts race through your mind that, though the body does not move, you might as well be running a race? It is hard to be still. We go so hard and so much that it is not easy to turn the noise off. Stillness of spirit is elusive. It requires practice to get there.

As we begin this season of prayer, we ask God for the stillness of mind and spirit to engage in prayer. The command of scripture is to “Be still.” The scripture does not tell us how to do so. Nor does it deal with the various challenges we find with controlling our inner noise. It simply commands us to be still. We can imagine that this means, at the very least, a physical stillness. Stop your activity. Get quiet. Turn off any distractions. Let your outward body send a signal to your inner spirit, saying, “It is time to pray. Get ready to turn away from other lesser concerns.”

It has been said that hurry is the death of prayer. If we have somewhere to go or something else to do, we can easily rush through our prayers. Prayer becomes duty, and this saps the life from it. When prayer becomes duty, then prayer is a task to be completed. When this happens, we get our prayers in, but they do not have depth. They skim along the surface, and we should wonder if God cares much about that kind of prayer. For this reason, we need to be still in order to enter the holy and sacred place of prayer.

One technique for calming our spirits in prayer is simply to pray for those things that come to mind. Do not try to suppress them or ignore them. Do not worry about whether your thoughts come from God or not. Do not categorize some of them as heavenly and others as earthly. Simply let thoughts rise up as they may, then make them the subject of your prayers. This is a good practice, since our thoughts register our concerns. Another form of this is simply to ask God what you ought to pray for. Pray for whatever comes to mind until your heart and spirit are still. When you have prayed for and about all the various concerns that arise, you will feel a sense of calm, at least to a degree that was not present before.

“Be still and know that I am God.” As we begin this season of prayer, here is a good place to start. Find somewhere today to be still. Find time where you are not rushed. Find enough space in your schedule that you can spend time with God. Hurry is the death of prayer. See if you can start this season of prayer with an unrushed time to sit, stand, or walk in the presence of the living God.

Today ask God to help you prepare your heart, mind, soul, and spirit for a season of prayer.