Four Practical Ways to Cultivate a Consistent Prayer Life

The roadsides are blanketed with wildflowers, and we often spend evenings playing kickball in the backyard now. It’s not officially summer yet, but it feels like summer has already settled upon us. As our rhythms change, I long to cultivate a more consistent prayer life, especially in this busy season.

As I reflect on this desire, I’m reminded that God doesn’t want to be an add-on to my busy summer; he wants to do life with me.

How to Cultivate a More Consistent Prayer Life

A phrase keeps running through my mind: Don’t leave God in the prayer closet.

God wants us to meet with him in quiet places. But he also wants us to keep our minds, hearts, and eyes fixed on him when we return to our everyday moments.

He wants us to go ahead and plan our vacations, landscaping projects, and weekend getaways. But he wants us to remember he is right beside us all the while.

God wants you to encounter him as you play catch with your kids in the backyard or take the dog for a walk.

He wants you to experience him as you paint the picnic table and mulch the flowerbeds.

He wants you to come to know him more as your newborn screams from the backseat the whole way to the vacation house.

A praying life is more than a life of disciplined time set aside for seeking God’s face. You will cultivate a more consistent prayer life when you simply keep your eyes open and watch for God as you go about your days.

Let’s look at four specific ways to cultivate a more consistent prayer life:

1. Cultivate a more consistent prayer life by aiming to live on two levels.

God is calling us to live on two levels.

Thomas Kelly describes these levels: “On one level we may be thinking, discussing, seeing, calculating, meeting all the demands of external affairs. But deep within, behind the scenes, at a profounder level, we may also be in prayer and adoration, song and worship and a gentle receptiveness to divine breathings. The secular world of today values and cultivates only the first level believing this is where the real business of mankind is done . . . But we know that the deep level of prayer is the most important thing in the world. It is at this deep level that the real business of life is determined.”

If we want to cultivate praying lives, we will learn to live on two levels.

2. Aim to be fully present within each moment.

May is my favorite month. I love watching the world change color. The month begins mostly beige and barren. In four short weeks, everything changes. Leaves explode into a vibrant canopy, and the understory of the forest is nearly impenetrable. The world is suddenly lush and alive.

I recently stood along the creek on a May evening and breathed in the world around me. The air smelled like honeysuckle and creek-bottom. Birdsong lifted to the treetops and got lost in the outstretched branches. I was fully present. I felt vibrantly alive and deeply connected with the Creator’s heart.

Do you want to cultivate a more consistent prayer life?

Ask God to help you be fully present in your moments. Play along sandy beaches. Laugh over dripping ice cream cones. Slip out of your shoes just to feel the damp grass beneath your feet. Breathe deeply. Laugh deeply. Love deeply. (For more on how to breathe, laugh, and love, join me right here.)

Ask God to help you be fully present in your moments. Play along sandy beaches. Slip out of your shoes just to feel the damp grass beneath your feet. #satisfied Share on X

3. Return to God again and again.

I tend to pray big prayers at the start of my days and then forget all about God when I feel overwhelmed. I’m learning to be gentle with my failures. Every moment of distraction is an invitation to return to God all over again.

I invite you to keep coming back to God.

Try to live prayerfully. When you forget, use it as an opportunity to return all over again. Mess up a thousand times, and you create a thousand opportunities to turn to God all over again.

4. Cultivate a more consistent prayer life by finding your rest in Jesus.

When Christ becomes our primary source of peace and rest, we learn to turn to him for comfort throughout our days.

I’ve learned to turn to Jesus first thing every morning as I gather strength for the day. I then continue to look toward him throughout my days as I seek his peace. Jesus wants to be your source of rest and peace, too.

Remind yourself to look toward him throughout your days by writing yourself notes, setting a timer on your phone to remind you to turn to him, or even wearing a piece of jewelry that will remind you to turn to him.

He is waiting.

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