I used to have a book titled How to Spend an Hour in Prayer. I think it was by a man named Dick Eastman. Over the years I’ve lost the book, but I still have the notes to a lesson I wrote, based on that book. So I thought I’d pass on the gist of the lesson (and the book) to you.

Don’t be intimidated by the title. It doesn’t have to be an hour. Mr. Eastman pointed out that the clock-face was divided into 12 five-minute segments. (That’s on the old analog-style clocks…for you youngsters, clocks used to have faces, not just digital readouts.) A different way of praying was assigned to each segment. If praying for an hour makes you balk, try praying for 12 minutes, using a different way of praying for every minute. Or pray for 24 minutes, and change the way you pray every two minutes. You get the idea.

This approach answers the question, “What do I say to God when I pray?” (The French Christian mystic Francois Fenelon said if you talk to God about your sins, you’ll never lack for things to say. But I digress.) This certainly isn’t the only way to pray, but I find it to be helpful when I need to “jump start” my praying, sometimes.

Here are the 12 different ways to pray, one for each of the segments:

  1. Praise – Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD! This means to be grateful to God for who He is: He is holy, He is there (He exists); He is all-knowing, all-powerful, and present everywhere. God is loving, and merciful, and kind, and always faithful. These things and more are called the attributes of God. The point is to give God thanks, not for what He’s done or what He’s given (that’ll come later), but simply for who He
  2. Waiting – Psalm 46:10 – Be still, and know that I am God. Take a few moments and gather your sense of God. Just still your heart, and silently surrender your soul to Him. Think of it like sunbathing: you simply bask in the silent Presence of God.
  3. Confession – Psalm 139:23 – Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! This is where we can use Fenelon’s advice. Simply acknowledge to God the things in your heart and life that you know are not pleasing to Him. Then ask His forgiveness. Think of it as “spring cleaning” for your soul.
  4. Scripture Praying – Jeremiah 23:29 – Is not My Word like a fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? This is what teacher Daniel Henderson called “Scripture fed, Spirit led, worship based prayer”. Take any of your favorite verses and turn them into a prayer. This was Martin Luther’s favorite way to pray. The Psalms are especially good to use for this; I think that may be one reason God gave us the book of Psalms. Take Psalm 23, for instance. Read verse 1, and then say something like, “O Lord, You are my Shepherd, and I know that I will never lack for anything I truly need because You are watching over me.” Try this, and watch how your prayer will “take off”, and other things will come pouring out of you to God. Then when you “run down”, go to another verse.
  5. Watching – Colossians 4:2 Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. You could call this “holy alertness”. Think about the “borders” of your life, and talk to God about any weak spots where you might be susceptible to intrusion by the Enemy (i.e., the devil). This is you thinking about your life and talking to God about keeping you “out of the ditch”. It’s asking God to help you recognize potential problem areas with sin and temptation, before they happen.
  6. Intercession – 1 Timothy 2:1-2 – First of all then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and dignified in every way. This means praying for other people. The phrase “all people” doesn’t mean you, personally, have to pray for everybody. It simply means that you can pray for anyone you want: friends, relatives, co-workers, etc. The really convicting thing is when Paul tells us to pray for those in authority over us. We would much rather complain and say insulting things about them…but God’s Word tells us to pray for them, too.
  7. Petition – Matthew 7:7 – Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. The sense here is: keep on asking, keep on seeking, and keep on The Apostle Paul said, “Let your requests be made known to God.” (Philippians 4:6) This is you talking to God about how you’d like your day to go. This is you talking to God about how you’d like your life to go. He gets the final say-so, but He still wants you to talk to Him about it. (Don’t you like it when your kids talk to you?)
  8. Thanksgiving – 1 Thessalonians 5:18 – Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Maybe you can’t be thankful for your circumstances, but you can still find something to thank God for, in your circumstances. We have to be intentional about this; we aren’t thankful by nature. This is simply you expressing your appreciation to God for what He’s done and what He’s given to you. It’s cultivating an attitude of gratitude towards God.
  9. Singing – Psalm 100:2 – Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into His presence with thanksgiving! Yes, singing: you, singing to God. The first time you try this, you’ll likely feel embarrassed, especially if you don’t think you sing very well. Do it anyway. Sing a verse of a favorite hymn, or the words to a praise-and-worship song you like. Just close your eyes and sing the words to Him. Again I ask: don’t you love it when your little ones sing for you, no matter how off-key they are? Sing to your God!
  10. Meditation – Joshua 1:8 – This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. This time, don’t say anything. Just think about a verse or a portion of Scripture. The word meditate meant “to chew the cud”, like a cow will chew it’s cud, in order to get all of the goodness out of the grass it ate. This is you “chewing” on a piece of Scripture, to make sure you get all the goodness you can out of it. It’s one way of listening to God. And that brings us to…
  11. Listening – Ecclesiastes 5:2 – Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. Here is where you quietly wait before God to listen for whatever He might want to say to you. You won’t hear from God every time, and you likely won’t hear an audible voice. Very few people in the history of the world have heard God audibly. God is totally capable of speaking directly to your heart, if He wants. But you won’t “hear” Him at all, if you don’t take the time to listen. Prayer is a conversation, and a conversation is not one person doing all the talking. First you talk, and then you listen to the other person talk. Sometimes God speaks first: you sense Him tugging on your heart, pulling you to come pray to Him. Try to never deny an impulse to pray. And when you believe God has spoken to you, weigh it carefully against what the Bible says. God will never tell you to do something contrary to Scripture. If you need to, go ask someone who knows the Bible better than you. But be sure you make time to listen to God.
  12. Praise – Psalm 63:3 – Because Your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. This brings us full circle. You might be thinking, “I already did this!” But there is no such thing as praising God too much. Maybe, as your time of prayer draws to a close, you could thank Him for hearing your prayer (Psalm 65:2 – O You who hear prayer, to You shall all flesh come.). The Westminster Shorter Catechism begins, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” Who knows: maybe sometime you can actually tell God, “I’ve really enjoyed our time together!”

This is how you can spend a very fast 12 minutes–or even 60 minutes!—in prayer to God.

If I might paraphrase John 3:16: God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, so you could have your sins forgiven, become His child…and talk to Him!

So go talk to your Heavenly Father. He’s waiting for you in the usual place.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Pastor David