We guard a lot of things in our lives. We guard things of value and that are important to us. We guard our children, our homes, our finances, even our lives. But what about our prayer life? Have you thought about how you guard that? Does it even need guarding?
Many things come against our prayer life. The world is full of many distractions as well as the spirit realm. If we are not careful, our prayer life will take a back seat to life, our schedules, our jobs and our entertainment.
[ctt template=”2″ link=”dk6nD” via=”yes” ]Do you guard your prayer life?[/ctt]
I remember the day that God came to me about my prayer life while I was watching some random television show. He said to me “if you will give up watching TV so much you will gain more of My presence. I will give you all you want of Me.” Wow! Yes I wanted that. But it would cost me.
My flesh struggled at first because I like the show I was watching. It wasn’t sinful or anything but it was stealing a lot of my time. I didn’t see how it would hurt to watch it. But, that fact that I was debating it meant that prayer in that moment was not a priority in my life. Now this was important because I had been crying out in prayer regularly for more of Him. More of His presence. More of His love.
Well, God was trying to answer my prayer, but I needed to cooperate with Him.
In that moment a decision needed to be made. God was inviting me to have more fellowship with Him. Maybe you have been here, too. You have been struggling with your will versus His will. You want more of His presence in your life but struggle with what you have to give up to get that. And, you do have to give up something. You want an assurance of strength in your struggles. You may be hungering for Him to use you. You may have a calling on your life to serve Him in a special way in ministry or in the secular world. All of those things are found in His presence in your prayer time. But that time must be guarded from distractions.
3 Ways To Protect Your Prayer Life
Here are three steps to help you guard your prayer life from the distractions of your life and your mind.
1.) Make Communion with the Lord Your Primary Goal
You have to fully decide and commit to this prayer relationship. Communing with God in prayer and the study of His Word cannot be an option for you. You must move from the thought of I should pray to actually doing it and that you cannot survive without it. The Word of God must be more necessary to you than food.
Your communion time is so important because it is time that you minister to the Lord and He ministers back to you. You will find that your prayer time, when you commit in this way, will be more profitable for you; more effective.
Praying is the most important work you could ever do. It is never wasted or unimportant. You will shatter strongholds and effect kingdoms with your communing prayer with God.
2.) Put God First
Your appointment with God must be more important than any other appointments you have with people.
No one should come before time with God. God will honor you for how you honor Him. We, at times, give so much dishonor to the glory and majesty of God. We want God to move for us on our timetable but yet we sometimes keep God waiting. We ignore Him and we pay no attention to Him. We put all kinds of things before Him.
You may start out with dedicated time for Him and with one distraction you drop/cancel your time with Him for something far less important. We do this when we say we will watch one more show on TV. Sometimes we just don’t show up for prayer and fellowship with Him.
3.) Stop Distractions in the Spirit
You must reject and take authority over everything that will interrupt your time with Him.
Yes, there are things that will come up that you need to attend to but there are far more things that we can put a stop to that are nothing more than sheer interruptions to our time with God sent from the spirit realm. There are some things that we will have to take authority over in the spirit and stop them because they are sent as an assignment for the sole purpose of distractions.
The enemy doesn’t want you to pray not one little bit. He will try to send things to keep you from praying. But you must reject every sign of his working an take authority over your day and your time.
One Final Thing…
Last thought, meet with God. It is such an honor and the benefits far outweigh anything that you could ever think of. Your very life could change forever because of it.
Where do you need to cooperate with God? Where can you take time today and really evaluate this area in your life? How can you guard your prayer life and move forward in prayer with confidence? All of these are very important questions to answer to truly have that deeper fellowship with Him.
[ctt template=”2″ link=”xf1fy” via=”yes” ]Check out these 3 ways to protect your prayer life[/ctt]
Be encouraged friend.
How Do You Protect Your Prayer Life?
Are there any struggles you face or any tips you could share on this subject? We’d love to hear from you! Join the conversation in the comments below.
All of these are great tips – I need to be putting God first again
We all do Andrea. We let things slip because of the “gottas” of life. Keep going dont give up just prioritize and you will be fine.
I relate to this on so many levels. While I think my prayer life is strong my “quiet time” with the Lord is definitely struggling. I like to view my life as a constant diaolog with the Lord which helps my heart be in constant communication/prayer.
As for my Quiet Time struggles I think I need to shake up my morning routine to light that fire again. Thanks for this post!
I live that shake up my routine. Yesssss I need to do that too. Thank you.
I have had to guard my prayer time each morning to make sure that I always spent time with God. After I realized the huge impact my intercessory prayer made in the lives of others, I couldn’t sin by not praying.
Wonderful reply. Thank you.
My morning bible reading and prayer journalling are so important! I love starting my day with God and allowing His words to lead my day and renew my mind!
Yes. Morning is great to get it in. I’m not really morning person mine is late at night.
I regularly just wait on the Holy Spirit. I used to rush through so I could get stuff done but now I saveor the time.
Yes. Morning is great to get it in. I’m not really morning person mine is late
I had to figure out what worked for me. I remember growing up and trying to set aside time for God and it never working. I discovered that, for me, I needed to have an ongoing dialogue with him throughout the day and then quiet time to hear him.
I love this
“Your appointment with God must be more important than any other appointments you have with people.“ I so need to work on this ardently… yes He gives grace and I am grateful for it but sometimes I choose over the grace.