Jump directly to the Content

Making Prayer a Habit

I am therefore not really deeply worried that prayer is at present a duty, and even an irksome one. This is humiliating. It is frustrating. It is terribly time wasting. The worse one is praying the longer one's prayers take, but we are still only at school.
C. S. Lewis1
Our abandonment of one thing is not sufficient to settle us in the habitual practice of the other, but there is need again of some fresh impulse, and of an effort not less than that made in our avoidance of evil dispositions, in order to our acquiring good ones.
John Chrysostom2

Many problems go away if you just leave them alone. Try to fix them and you only make them worse. Most stomach aches, rainstorms, and sour moods, for example, eventually disappear if you ignore them as best you can.

Other problems go away only if you deal with them thoughtfully, thoroughly, and persistently. They need attention. Left alone they slip into the nagging subconscious, but they never go away. The problem of developing a consistent prayer ...

Tags:
Posted:
March
Support Our Work

Subscribe to CT for less than $4.25/month

Homepage Subscription Panel

Read These Next

From the Magazine
I Hated ‘Church People.’ But I Knew I Needed Them.
I Hated ‘Church People.’ But I Knew I Needed Them.
As I attended my second funeral in three weeks, two Christians showed me a kindness I couldn’t explain.
Editor's Pick
What Christians Miss When They Dismiss Imagination
What Christians Miss When They Dismiss Imagination
Understanding God and our world needs more than bare reason and experience.
close