FUELLING YOUR PRAYER LIFE Pt.2

DISCOVER YOURSELF

God gave us a body. It is the vehicle through which we execute his agenda here on earth. Also, it plays a vital role in our fellowship with him.

There's a need to discover and understand the workings of our body for us to be effective in our prayer life.

When I was in school as an undergraduate, I don't read at midnight. I discovered that once I sleep at night, I won't wake up till the next morning.

Some people have the grace to sleep and wake up at midnight to read but I don't. If I try it, i'll walk around during the day like a drunk.

Having known that, I rescheduled my reading time and drew a plan that fit into my active hours. I could read from afternoon till midnight with my eyes wide open as long as there's no nap in between.

I discovered that my body requirement for sleep is minimum of 6 hours a day. If I want to wake up early, I'll time my sleep. Once I achieve 6 hours, I'll be fine.

Back in the days, I ensured all academic activities stopped early in the night for me to wake up early to pray. I developed a custom of waking up by 4am to pray having satisfied my body's demand for 6 hours sleep.

For you to have a consistent prayer life, you must discover yourself especially your body's requirement for rest and your active time.

Some are natural early risers while others are late risers. Many years ago, I tried praying between 1-3pm at night but it wasn't working for me because i'm active till about 12 midnight and i'm expected to wake up between 5-6am in the morning.

I was damaging my health because I wasn't sleeping well so I stopped. My prayer life became better when I discovered myself and struck a balance between work time, resting time and waking time.

Also, you must take your time to know what your daily schedule is. No matter how busy you are, you can carve a time for prayer.

If you form the habit of sleeping early, waking up early to pray shouldn't be a problem. As they say in nursery school, "Early to bed early to rise".

It is a nice thing to wake up early to pray. However, to achieve this, you must cultivate the discipline of sleeping early.

What about those that return home late from work and want to leave home very early to work the next day? I know this is true for some especially those living in cosmopolitan cities with traffic issues.

Understand there's no excuse for not have a strong prayer life. While you may not be able to wake up early to pray because of the brevity of sleep, you still have to pray in the morning.

Also, you can take advantage of break time in the office or the hours before work starts to commune with your heavenly father.

I know a sister who leaves home as early as 5am for office so that she can beat traffic. Often, she gets to work on or before 6am. Official resumption is 8am. Between 6am-8am, she spends quality time with God in her office before the start of work.

How it works for Mr 'A' may be different from that of Mr 'B'. God understands the peculiarity of individual's situation and he's willing to fellowship with us If we're ready for him.

Discover yourself. Reorder your priorities to give time for prayer. Prayer is so important. If you'll need to cut down on t.v. time to sleep early and wake up early, the sacrifice is worth it.

You must fight for your prayer life. If the devil kill your prayer life, every other thing dies.