The Narrow Path Ministries

Hello, family. Jesus had a pattern of going out to pray before sunrise, which he may have done every day. I'm trying to cultivate this practice myself but find it difficult to pray when I'm still sleepy, as did the apostles apparently. I normally wake up at 5am to get to work by 6 so I'd be up to pray around 4:30 or so. Even if I get to bed early the night before, I still find it hard to concentrate in pre-dawn hours. It seems a good idea to start one's day with some spiritual meditation and prayer instead of a frantic rush to get out the door. Have any of you developed this practice? Did it get easier with time?

Hi JC-

i give myself an extra 1/2 hour in the a.m., but mainly to read the bible, and sometimes some other devotional reading if time permits. I would like to say that I spend some of this time in prayer, but generally do not. however, on the way to work i often will listen to some worship music and pray during the drive time.

TK

Hi JC,
I get up early in the morning; I rise at 4 AM. It's a habit I developed when my kids were young so that I could have enough quiet time to myself before they woke up. Now it's harder for me to break the habit than to just keep doing it. Of course, I'm sort of out of it by 9 in the evenings, so I miss some late stuff. I seem to wake up alert enough that the first thing I do is pray, but that's not the only time I pray. So, yes, I suppose it gets easier the more you do it.

Hello JC

I’ve tried to develop the practice of rising early to pray, but haven’t been able to sustain it regularly; I’m not a morning person. Unlike Michelle, I stayed up late to have time to myself, with kids in bed. (But I will keep trying periodically, whenever I think God is leading me to do so, even if it’s just for a season).

Our church group has a 6 a.m. prayer meeting once a week, but having to drive 15 mins to get there wakes me up enough, so that works.

The times that I do wake early specifically to pray, I’ve found out not to just sit up in bed & hope I won’t doze off! It works better if I go to the lounge room, preferably with a coffee.
Hopefully it doesn’t matter what time we pray, as long as we do; and also being obedient to the Holy Spirit’s prompting, whenever it happens.

Michelle wrote

I get up early in the morning; I rise at 4 AM.

I wake up about the same time you do Michelle. The only thing is, I live in the Eastern Time Zone! (7am est) I've always been more of a night owl.

The important thing is to find time to spend with God. I don't think the day of day matters. I have had to change my time from morning to evening on occation. Also I have stopped all by myself. Good habits don't get you into heaven, but they can help you focus on what does.

Murf wrote:The important thing is to find time to spend with God. I don't think the day of day matters. I have had to change my time from morning to evening on occasion. Also I have stopped all by myself. Good habits don't get you into heaven, but they can help you focus on what does.

Hi Murf, I like this conversation because I'm overly curious about how people live their lives

I can't quite figure out what you are saying in the sentence that I bolded in the quote. Did you stop doing something because it was becoming either idolatrous or a legalistic works-salvation kind of thing? Or, perhaps you mean you stopped doing something alone and now pray or meditate with someone else in attendance? Or, could it be that you broke a particular habit of praying at a particular time in order to "shake things up" and refocus your attention?

Michelle wrote:

Did you stop doing something because it was becoming either idolatrous

of course i cannot speak for murf, but i have found this to be true. when the PURPOSE of reading the Bible, for e.g. is simply reading the Bible to get through a certain number of pages to meet a "goal" it can become idolatrous. when i start falling into this trap, it is time to re-focus, or try something different.

TK

Also I have stopped all by myself.

I just meant it as a catch all.
Sometimes outside circumstanses caused me to change my time. Sometimes I just got lazy and stopped, sometimes focused on other things, other times I found I really was unsure about what I was really getting out of the time.

Thanks for explaining, Murf. I really liked this statement: "Good habits don't get you into heaven, but they can help you focus on what does."