You’ll never develop a morning prayer time in bed
Paul Miller
From the book "A Praying Life"
Category: Paul Miller
Confident?
If you are not praying then you are confident that time, money and talent are all you need in life. You’ll always be a little too tired, a little too busy. But if like Jesus, you realise you can’t do life on your own, then no matter how busy, no matter how tired you are, you will find the time to pray.
Paul Miller
From the book "A Praying Life"
Praying out loud
Praying out loud can be helpful because it keeps you from getting lost in your head. It makes your thoughts concrete. But it is more than technique, it is a statement of faith. You are audibly declaring your belief in a God who is alive.
Paul Miller
From the book "A Praying Life"
Wandering mind
When your mind starts wandering in prayer, be like a little child. Don’t worry about being organized or staying on task. Paul Certainly wasn’t! (Ephesians 3) Remember you are in conversation with a person. Instead of beating yourself up, learn to play again.
Paul Miller
From the book "A Praying Life"
Don’t be embarrassed
Don’t be embarrassed by how needy your heart is and how much it needs to cry out for grace. Just start praying.
Paul Miller
From the book "A Praying Life"
Praying out loud
Praying out loud can be helpful because it keeps you from getting lost in your head. It makes your thoughts concrete. But it is more than technique; it is also a statement of faith. You are audibly declaring your belief in a God who is alive.
Paul Miller
From the book "A Praying Life"
Praying like a child
Private, personal prayer is one of the last great bastions of legalism. In order to pray like a child, you might need to unlearn the non-personal, nonreal praying that you’ve been
Paul Miller
From the book "A Praying Life"
A less busy heart
Learning to pray doesn’t offer us a less busy life; it offers us a less busy heart. In the midst of outer busyness we can develop an inner quiet. Because we are less hectic on the inside, we have a greater capacity to love… and thus to be busy, which in turn drives us even more into a life of prayer.
Paul Miller
From the book "A Praying Life"
Functional Deists
Many Christians haven’t stopped believing in God; we have just become functional deists, living with God at a distance. We view the world as a box with clearly defined edges. But as we learn to pray well, we’ll discover hat this is my Father’s world. Because my Father controls everything, I can ask, and he will listen and act. Since I am his child, change is possible and hope is born.
Paul Miller
From the book "A Praying Life"
If God is Sovereign
If God is sovereign, then he is in control of all the details of my life. If he is loving then he is going to be shaping the details of my life for good. If he is all wise then he’s not going to do everything that I want because I don’t know what I need. If he is patient then he is going to take time to do all of this.
When we put all these things together – God’s sovereignty, love, wisdom and patience – we have a divine story.
Paul Miller
From the book "A Praying Life"