A few weeks ago, under the heading, “Obedience to God,” I structured a discussion with my Grade 10 home room (Year 11 form group in UK speak) under two headings, aspects of obedience to God which are common to all Christians, and those which represent a very specific calling from God on an individual basis.
Pretty well at the top of the first list are reading the Bible and praying, these two things are such an important staple for Christian living. And over the years I’ve struggled with both, making them a key part of my daily routine. It was in 2012, when I acquired my first Kindle, that I started reading the Bible through in a year, I’m pleased to say that I’m now at the point where leaving the house without reading the Bible would be roughly equivalent to leaving without washing my teeth, it’s just not something I would do. But it’s taken an awful long time to get there. It’s not a helpful line of thought I know, but I can find myself wishing I’d got there much, much sooner, regretting the lost time in getting to know the Bible well. Beyond reading the Bible through in a year I like to have some other form of Bible study on the go, over some years I have been through the Bible with the help of the New International Version Application Commentary series, am between schemes at the moment, any advice on this point gratefully received!
But even while I’ve been establishing more sustainable routines for Bible reading I’ve still been struggling with praying. It really is such a difficult thing to do on an individual basis. Concentration can so easily wander. I’ve tried various books and schemes but not found anything which quite works.
While it’s still very much work in progress, something I’ve started to do is pray with my laptop open. Now, of course, there are huge opportunities for the laptop to provide distractions from prayer! But I’m actually finding it helpful. For example, I keep in touch with a large number of people across the world through WhatsApp, both individually and in groups. Going through the list of people with whom I’ve recently been in contact and praying for them, sometimes also sending messages, really helps. Similarly with emails and Facebook posts. In a future blog post I’ll be telling you about the websites I’ve been putting together for orphanages, in fact it’s going through the analytics which helps guide my prayer. And I also turn to the online newspaper and pray for world events.
Not perfect and, as I say, still very much work in progress, but I’m finding this approach really helpful at the moment. Would love to hear from you as to what you think! If you try this out, let us know how it goes! If you’ve found a way of structuring your prayer life in a manner which works for you, tell us about it! If you would like to be on my WhatsApp list of people to pray for, please contact me on +44 7946 381918.
Let’s encourage each other in this important aspect of Christian living – and challenge each other, holding each other to account in a spirit of Christian love and service. In all things, at all times, to God be the glory!
Geoff Tennant's Blog 
Good morning Dr. Geoff. I’m grateful to read and learn from you regarding your Christian prayer life. I know it’s a huge task and takes self discipline to reach where you’ve reached so far! More interesting is your ability to pray with your laptop open! I feel that’s very unique. Thanks for making it possible!
In my case l do find it very challenging to read my Bible every morning. May be partly due to the time schedule for duties and partly because l lack self discipline to be sincere. I usually prefer reading the Bible using Daily Guide during my evening devotion after supper. l find this more convenient and with less disturbances. Sometimes it works best when am at work place, away from the family since am directly responsible for managing my time.
However, at the family level l still find it challenging due to the diversity of interest among family members, which family consists of people of age differences. I found this practise easier when most family members were young, with less diversity of interests. Albeit, l sometimes do ‘prayer walking’ when l feel pressing need and yet have no privacy – both at home and work place and l find it works
Thank you for this post, it has checked my Christian life regarding Bible reading and praying which are cardinal aspects of a Christian. All blessings.
Angucia
On Sat, Sep 25, 2021, 11:40 Geoff Tennant’s Blog wrote:
> gdtennant posted: ” A few weeks ago, under the heading, “Obedience to > God,” I structured a discussion with my Grade 10 home room (Year 11 form > group in UK speak) under two headings, aspects of obedience to God which > are common to all Christians, and those which represent a ” >
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