Day 2: Breath Prayer Part 2, Building the Habit of Prayer 

Let’s keep using the Jesus Prayer to help us build the habit of prayer. Hopefully, you spent various times yesterday praying the Jesus Prayer. It will take some practice to bring it to mind all throughout the day. Also, the Jesus Prayer is just one of many prayers we can learn to use the throughout the day. You can have any conversation you want to have with Jesus, you can use a written prayer or make up one of your own, but for now, as we’re learning to pray, just keep using this one. 

Let’s pray it out loud right now before we continue: 

“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” 

One day, I used a prayer tool called prayer knots to repeat the Jesus Prayer over and over again. As I traveled to another city to make a hospital visit, I said the prayer for about 45 minutes straight trying to focus on what I was saying to God and listening to see if He would speak to me or leave me an impression through His Holy Spirit. When I arrived for the hospital visit, I found that the prayer kept repeating in the back of my mind even when I stopped using my prayer knots. As I walked into the hospital, as I had a conversation with the patient, and even as I prayed for the patient, my prayer kept repeating like a broken record. 

I loved that I could keep praying while I was doing other things! I really could keep two thoughts in my mind at the same time. Brother Lawrence taught this in the work The Practice of the Presence of God, “Let him think of God as often as he can. Let him gradually develop within himself this small but sacred practice. Nobody notices it, and nothing is easier than to repeat these little internal adorations often during the day.” 

You can do this, too. Just keep returning your thoughts to God using this small prayer tool, repeatedly, throughout the day. If you go a little while without praying and then suddenly remember to pray, don’t feel guilty, just be thankful that God reminded you to pray, and then pray again. Let’s pray again: 

“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” 

I find that using my phone to set an alarm at various points in the day helps me to remember to pray. 

Let’s continue to say this prayer anytime during the day when we think of it, but let us also set our alarm to go off three times today so we are reminded to pray in the morning, at midday, and the evening. Set your alarm about ten or fifteen minutes after you wake up. That way your mind will be working so you can say the prayer. Then set your alarm for noon. And then once again at 6:00 pm. 

Prayer work: Go on…. Set your alarm before you go any further. 

Now you’re ready to be reminded to pray at three different times during the day. Continue to pray the Jesus Prayer whenever you think about praying, also. 

So, what have we accomplished, so far? Some using this devotional started praying to Jesus and imagining Him listening and smiling at them and the Holy Spirit moved in their life with such clarity those people may have started weeping, because their emotions were stirred toward God. Maybe they haven’t felt that way in a long time, maybe they had forgotten that God does listen and respond to our prayers. Maybe, those feelings of being listened to have never happened before for you. Remember we see and hear by faith--trusting that God always answers. 

If Day 2 still feels like you’re only going through the motions and/or you can’t really see or feel the benefit yet that is ok. We’ve only just begun. I want to encourage you to keep it up. You don’t always see results after the first night at the gym either. Here’s the disclaimer: “Results may vary, but there will be results!”