Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” (Matthew 6:40)
Last year, I read a book by author Dick Eastman entitled, For One Hour. The message of the book was simple: (1) Commit to praying at least one hour per day and (2) Develop a systematic approach to your prayer life, patterned after Biblical examples. Eastman further categorized that prayer hour into twelve five minute segments, giving each a unique focus. Before reading this book, I was praying on average twenty to thirty minutes per day. The idea of praying for an hour daily seemed like an immense obstacle. After learning Eastman’s strategy, I can now share how I have prayed for at least an hour almost everyday for over a year! This shift in my prayer life has taken every area in my walk with God (discipling, marriage, relationship with other disciples) to an entirely new level! I want to encourage you to imitate me and amplify your prayer life immediately. I promise that you will see change rapidly.
Below is my personal adaptation of Eastman’s method for how we can begin praying for one hour everyday, starting today!
Praise: Our Lord’s prayer begins with, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” (Matthew 6:9). Praise puts God in his rightful position as sovereign. There are many focuses we can have as we praise God. Here are a few examples: We can praise God for the beauty of His creation (Ps.19:1); we can praise God for His greatness and strength (Ps. 18:1-2); we can praise God for His great plans He has for us (Jer. 29:11-14); we can praise God for how He has worked in Biblical history (Act. 7) or even just spend time praising God for his Word (Ps. 119)!
Silence: Psalm 46:10 says “be still, and know that I am God.” When we take time to “be still” and meditate on the presence of God, it allows our hearts and minds to be elevated to heaven and raise up the stresses, pressures, and worries of this world (Col. 3:1-2). When we learn to sit or stand still as — Elijah did– we can hear the gentle whisper of God that God desires our souls to hear (1 Kings 19:11-13).
Singing: Psalm 100:1-2 says, “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.” The Bible tells us to sing to God, therefore we must. Satan will flee at the sound of your righteous singing!
Confession: Psalm 32:5 says, “‘Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.’ I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.’ And you forgave the guilt of my sin.” Having honored God with vocal praise and silent love we can begin to confess our sins, confident of His receptive ear and expect to find mercy and grace (Hebrews 4:16).
Gratitude: Philippians 4:6 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” A grateful disciple is a faithful disciple. As disciples, we must learn to guard our hearts with walls of gratitude. This begins with expressing our gratitude before God everyday in our prayers.
Scripture Praying: Choose a chapter of the Bible. Read it to God; claim the victory, the promise, and the power that you have read about.
Disciples: Ephesians 6:18b says, “…and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.” Paul expected disciples to always pray for the Lord’s people. Therefore we should be praying for those in our immediate ministries, our Church here in Denver and the Lord’s people all over the world in God’s worldwide Kingdom.
Goals: Isaiah 32:8 says, “But the noble make noble plans, and by noble deeds they stand.” It is a noble thing for us to make goals as Christians. We should not only be making goals, but also praying through them daily in our Quiet Times. Some examples of goals could be to grow spiritually, to grow in your leadership, in your family life, or even grow professionally.
Personal: Luke 11:3 says, “Give us each day our daily bread.” The Lord knows what we need, but He still expects us to ask Him for our daily needs. We all have many personal needs. We must bring things before our all powerful provider everyday and watch Him take care of us.
Dreams: Proverbs 29:18 in the KJV says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” When disciples are dreaming big for God and His Kingdom it changes everything about them. Dreams give you an extra dose of zeal, faith, and excitement. As disciples we should have “big” personal dreams to be used by God in His kingdom and continually pray about them!
Movement: What a blessing we have to be a part of a worldwide movement that is unified in doctrine and purpose (1 Cor. 4:17). What we have is truly from God. We must strive to pray for our worldwide family everyday. Here are four areas to focus on: (1) Pray for God to bless every church with abundant fruit, (2) pray for more churches to get planted so more people can be saved, (3) pray for the spiritual health of every disciple around the world and (4) pray for all our leaders (Eph. 6:19). Lastly, I personally find it beneficial to pray through the “Crown of Thorns Project”; it places all of the Lord’s Churches on my heart.
World: 1 Timothy 2:1-4 says, “I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority,that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” Paul reminds Timothy (and us) that we must be praying for the “leaders of this world” so we can preach the gospel with peace. It does not matter where we stand politically, God wants us to pray for all the leaders of this world for the gospel’s sake.
Learning to pray for an hour a day has radically changed my life and elevated my walk with God to new heights! Therefore, I want to challenge every member of the Denver church to decide today to take your prayer life to the next level. By God’s grace, we have been able to witness twelve souls baptized into Christ over the past ten weeks! In addition, the Lord has blessed us to hit a monthly “record” in September as we saw seven students baptized! Imagine the growth that God will continue to do if every member in the Denver Church goes after praying for an hour daily! We will go from witnessing 7 additions in a month to daily additions in a week! I put before you that when every disciple in Denver increases their prayer life and allows God to fill us with a greater spiritual endurance to work harder for Him, we will see an even more fruitful October than we have ever witnessed!
And to God be the glory,
Jason T. Woody
Evangelist
