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Experts share their number one prayer tip
In 2015, I hosted a podcast called Health Matters where I interviewed leading health experts. Believing that Bible study and prayer are to the spirit what eating healthy and exercise are to the body, I asked each expert their “quick tip” for the four disciplines of Bible study, exercise, eating healthy, and prayer.
I share excerpts from interviews with top health experts on prayer.
1. Do Scripture prayers
“My quick tip would be to do scripture prayers. Scripture prayers with powerful Bible verses would be a good way to get a biblical mindset on food and on life in general.” ~Barb Raveling
2. Pray first thing
“Before my feet hit the floor, I just wake up and say, ‘Good morning. Thank You Jesus for another day. Before I even get out of this bed help me get my mind right and get ready to go out there and do whatever it is You got me planned to do that day.’ ~Rusty Nokes
4. Pray boldly
“This comes right from a sermon I recently heard that when we go into prayer to pray boldly and to ask God boldly with our petitions. In this sermon, it’s just like when a child asks their father to fix a toy boldly. They know their dad can do it, and they boldly don’t have any doubts. And that is how we should come before our Heavenly Father in prayer.” ~Rachel Almstedt
5. Make time for deep prayer
“I don’t want us to forget that we need to make time for that deep, quiet prayer without interruption. That’s when we go into our room, we can close the door, we can kneel before the Lord, and we can cry out to Him. We can be so silent before Him. And I want that to be the prayer tip is that we don’t forget to go to that secret, quiet place with Him on a regular basis.” ~Jennifer Waddle
6. Keep it simple
“Oh, people are so hung up on prayer. It’s just talking to God like I’m talking to you. Don’t worry about the position you’re in, whether you’re standing or speaking in Latin. God just wants a, ‘Hi, how are you? Let me know how things are going today.’ Just be simple with Him and He will treat you with decency and listen in return.” ~Brenda Wood
7. Talk with Daddy
“If reading your Bible is like throwing down soul grub then prayer is simply talking with Daddy. I think if we really begin to look at this whole thing like Daddy just wants us to hop up on his lap and talk with Him. It’s not a pressure thing. It’s not, ‘I got to get so many minutes in prayer or I’m a horrible believer.’ It’s really about the privilege of hopping on a Father’s lap who just wants us to talk with Him and share everything on our hearts, our concerns, and give Him our praise.” ~CJ Hitz
8. Find a place
“It’s important to have a place for me to go. For me, on a very local level, it’s my chair. I just love to light a candle, there’s just something about that. I like it early in the morning before the sun comes up, the candle’s going, it provides this atmosphere of peacefulness. There’s a sense that this is a sacred place. A sense that sets me into a mode of prayer and just quiet. We need that quiet for our souls. So find your place. It’s a spot where you realize you’re going to come away from there with so much peace and joy and power.” ~CJ Hitz
9. Make it a habit
“Make it a habit just like brushing your teeth. You don’t have to get out of your bed. Stretch like an animal stretch and say your prayers right there. Say your prayers before you even go out of the house. Just a few minutes every day. Some people can’t do it or forget to do it, but I think if you do it every day for 21 days you build a good habit. So you can pray as soon as you go out the door, at lunch, at dinner, and pray before you go to bed.” ~Renee Wiggins
10. Join a prayer group
“You can have a prayer group over the telephone. At 5 o’clock the phone rings and everybody prays. So if you need to pray in a group, pray. Because prayer helps heal the soul, body and mind. Prayer helps. Believe me, it does.” ~Renee Wiggins
11. Pray for others
“Quick tip for prayer is to have others in mind. If we can focus on serving others and having others first, prayer can be so much sweeter. And having a journal to write those down and those requests and truly show compassion for others. It’s way easy to get wrapped up in our own lives when there are others who really need our help. And prayer is a powerful thing when you’re focused on the right objectives.” ~John Hayden
12. Pray the Word
“Prayer is something that we have to consistently do every day and it’s simply communicating with God. But I love to pray, and the surefire way to pray is to find out what the problem is and then pray the Word. Find it in the Word, the solution in the Word, and pray the Word.” ~Sabrina Memminger
13. Take a prayer walk
“I’m a firm believer in prayer walking. I go to a nature trail nearby my home at least 3 to 4 times a week and I combine my exercise time with prayer for my family, my community, my church, and others in my life who I know are struggling. That is such a powerful time when you can become more connected to the Father and actually spend time with Him giving prayers for others and then also receiving from Him as He speaks to you while you’re walking through nature. It can be so powerful to combine the two.” ~Laurie Graves
14. Pray anywhere
“I say pray as much as possible throughout the day, anywhere, everywhere. If you’re driving in the car turn off the music for a minute and pray. If you’re going to the bathroom, go ahead and pray. If you’re in the shower, go ahead and pray. If you could start and make it part of your daily life, it becomes like you get these little pieces of energy, little nuggets of energy throughout the whole day where you’re connecting with the Father and you’re drawing from Him.” ~Summer Breskow
15. Do it first thing
“Every morning — even before I pick up the phone, get on social media or look at what’s happening on the news — I try to say my quick Lord’s prayer just to remind me to be thankful, to be mindful, to stay focused for the rest of the day. And try to keep things in perspective. So do it as often as you can, usually first thing in the morning to start your day off right.” ~Nicole Swiner
16. Put on spiritual armour
“Put on your spiritual armour every single day when you pray. My daughter and I have done that — my youngest daughter — since she was three. We put on our armour every morning and every night before we go to sleep. The second thing is we always ask for the fruit of the Spirit. We do those two things and we pray for our children’s future spouses, and our future grandchildren, great-grandchildren and that our lineage will know Christ intimately.” ~Liz Faison
17. Let prayer set the tone
“My quick tip for prayer would be to allow prayer to set your tone for the day. That is the time when you take the time to ground yourself and as I was saying earlier include your health in your morning prayer and let that be the tone.” ~Cathy Morenzie
18. Pray Psalms
“Prayer and praise and worship kind of go together for me, so I’ll find myself sometimes singing songs or praying Psalms just walking around the house doing housework or whatever.” ~Angel Barrino
19. Get alone
“Get alone. I have two kids, and we’re living in my parent’s house right now while we’re waiting for a house to come through, and I just find that when I don’t get alone with God, I’m missing time with my best friend. You think, ‘Well I don’t have time for that because I have so much going on’ but you need time, you need to make the time. Because you need it. His strength can’t be perfect if you don’t have it.” ~Kimberly Rae
20. Try popcorn prayers
“Prayer is your time to get cozy with God. This isn’t a one-time thing each day. This is an all-day thing. I go to God all throughout the day. I call them “popcorn” prayers. He’s constantly guiding me each and every step. Whether it’s in my business, my life as a mom, or my life as a wife, these popcorn prayers go up every single day, all throughout the day.” ~Casey Sollock
21. Praise God
“Learn to praise God. I like to make a list of the attributes of God and how He deals with people and then I use my list — I call that my God list — to say back to Him His attributes. As I learn to praise my God I find that my heart is filled up. He says He inhabits the praises of His people, Psalm 22:3 KJV. And I really believe that since He placed eternity in my heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11) that by praising Him I’m filled up in a way that I might not have been before. So praising God puts Him in His place and me in my place.” ~Heidi Bylsma
22. Be real
“When you talk to God, talk to God. When you’re in this healing process what you’re going to do is you’re going to be real with Him about exactly what you feel at that moment because it’s no surprise to Him, but it’s healing to you to be able to talk to Him. Try to see Him as the loving God and one of your closest friends.” ~Linda Williams
23. Pray with joy
“My tip would be to pray with the mindset, the motivation, of joy and pleasure. In His presence is the fullness of joy. In His right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 37:4). And when we come to prayer with that sense that I get to just sit at His feet and just come and soak in the Presence, that’s when amazing things start to happen. That’s when we really begin to behold glory and it’s just a different approach than obligation. Come at it with a sense of joy and expectancy that you’re going to experience God’s goodness.” ~Adam Luckey
24. Use a prayer journal
“My quick tip for prayer is something I do every morning. I have a journal. It’s very simple, I just start with gratitude and then I write whatever I’m grateful for and then I turn that gratitude into prayer. Prayer for people, answer to prayer. Whatever I’m looking to pray for, to me writing it down seems to be part of my prayer; the actual writing of it. And then I can always look back and see when there’s been answer to prayer, which is awesome, right?” ~Julie Endl