“It’s 10:02 am. Will you pray with me?”
That’s what a friend of mine said to me in the lobby of the hotel not 2 minutes after I ran into him at a recent conference.
I was a bit caught off guard, “Uh, pray now?”
“It’s 10:02 am, for Luke 10:2. Let’s pray for laborers,” he said.
We bowed our heads right there in the lobby of the hotel and he prayed that God would use the conference to raise up laborers.
It was so intentional. A little awkward, but powerful. I loved it.
Do you struggle to keep a regular habit of praying throughout the day?
What if all you need is a little prompt?
Prayer Prompts
My friend explained that he set a reminder on his phone to go off at 10:02 am every day to remind him of the command in Luke 10:2 to pray for laborers.
And he said to them,
“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.“
Luke 10:2
After all, it is a prayer request straight from the mouth of Jesus.
He set the reminder to vibrate like a heartbeat so that it would be different from the other notifications he gets. I loved how he was leveraging technology not just to distract him, but to intentionally point him to healthy disciplines.
Imagine reaching for your phone after a vibration but for once, instead of a social media or newsfeed notification, it was calling you to prayer.
Prompting me to Pray
I decided to try it.
I set the reminder on my phone for 10:02am about a week ago and have been praying each day.
A couple of times I’ve been by myself. That was easy.
Once, I was on the phone. Another time I was in the middle of a staff meeting.
In each case I asked if we could pray. We did. It was amazing. I love the vision that it casts and hope it’s something that trickles down to others.
Not just a religious formula
Someone might say, “But that seems so formulaic. Aren’t you just checking the box?”
So?
I see it as planning in things that are important.
What’s wrong with that?
In fact, throughout church history just about every Christian tradition you can find has had some rhythm of morning, midday and evening prayers. Many of them scheduled up to 8 times to pray per day.
There is nothing wrong with a little nudge or prompt in the right direction. I’d argue it’s one of the most healthy disciplines you can do.
Instead of setting big goals, I’m a big fan of building healthy spiritual habits. This particular prayer prompt is a habit I’ve set in the past and wrote about it here.
Put it into Practice:
What are some reminders you can set to prompt your prayer life?
I’ve heard lots of different options for times you can set. Here are some options I’ve heard of:
- 10:40 to pray for missions.
- Pick your anniversary date on the clock to pray for your spouse.
- Pick a verse like Luke 10:2 to prompt to pray through a specific command in Scripture.
- The date of an upcoming event you want to remember to pray for.
Is this the solution for the rest of your life? No. I got into this habit over a year ago and moved away from it after awhile.
If that happens, that’s okay! In fact, I think it’s healthy to switch things up after awhile.
Building spiritual habits is like building muscles. If you do the same exercise every single time your body starts to get used to it. You have to do something different to shock the muscles and force them to grow.
You’re whole life you’ll have disciplines that help you grow for a season before you move on to something else that helps. When you notice yourself becoming numb to the reminder it might be time to try something new.
What prompts will you set?
What’s a reminder you need to set to spur on prayer for what matters most?
