Prayer Disciplines

• Make a vow to pray daily for whatever is on the News.
• Make time to pray for each close member of your family, every day.
• Spend 5 minutes, adjacent to meals, praying for the hungry of the world.
• Spend a few minutes each day on your knees asking the Lord for health.
• Make a list of what you believe to be your failures in life.  Pray and ask the Lord to bring good out of these things.  Persist over a week, or until you are at peace.
• Consider what you find difficult about your work.  Pray for strength.
• Make a list of your personal prayer concerns and organise it for use during the days, weeks and months ahead.

 

The Arts and Reading

• Select a piece of music that inspires you.  Play it and think of God’s creation.
• Using your best handwriting, write out slowly the psalm for the day.  Place the result on display, where you can see it.
• For the artistic, take a digital photograph of something that connects with the psalm.  Creatively combine the picture and words on your computer.
• Read through a whole book of the Bible. Reflect upon this for a few days.
• Spend half an hour each day reading a Book about God.
• During a week, read through the story of the death of our Lord (in one of the gospels) slowly, reflecting and meditating upon what happened.
• Over several days, write a poem about something that has caught your imagination during the devotions.

 

Pilgrimage and Journey

• Walk around your neighbourhood and pray for the families living near you.
• Drive or walk to a different church in your neighbourhood each day and pray outside it or in, for renewal and the unity of God’s people.
• Visit a local place of historic Christian worship in order to pray there.
• Look up an ancient pathway that runs near where you live.  Walk a section of this as you are able, dedicating your thoughts to some particular concern that has arisen.
• Explore the possibility of joining an established Christian pilgrimage.

 

Other Spiritual disciplines

• Each day, confess that which is wrong in your life, and resolve to change.
• Fast for the week by omitting one meal each day, where appropriate, and spending time in prayer.  If not a meal, perhaps even a biscuit break …?
• Find a mid-week service in your locality, perhaps at a church other than you are used to attending, and go to worship.
• Break bread with your family; pray to celebrate Christ present in your family life; use the Lord’s prayer and also 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.
• Consider praying each evening to commit the day into God’s hands and seeking protection from all evil.

 

Community and Politics

• Read a local paper to see if there is mention of anything you should pursue with a local councillor, and put your concern into action.
• Look through your TV listings and note how many programmes you would not be prepared to view for reasons of decency or taste.  Report your findings to the TV channel concerned.
• Note a contentious issue on the news and write to your MP about it, or email the media (as appropriate).
• Make time each day to read one of the charitable appeal leaflets that come through your door.  Consider your response.
• Greeting a neighbour or work colleague you normally pass by.
• Plan an occasion when you might invite your neighbours to your home for appropriate refreshment.

 

Family matters

• Arrange to visit some relatives you have not had contact with for some time.
• Send flowers (or other thoughtful gift) to a friend or relative who is ill.
• Spend more time with your spouse or closest relative at home.
• Take time to consider how often you should be telephoning, emailing or texting close members of your family.  Change as appropriate
• Explore a list of your ancestors.  Consider what they have contributed to your family and pray or act accordingly.

 

Local Church

• Make time to pray each day for the leadership at your church.
• Make a list of seven people from church with whom you have not been in contact for some time, and phone them – one per evening for a week.
• Consider your practical skills, what are they?  Organising?  DIY? Artistic? Offer your services for some specific event or occasion in church.
• Focus on one person at church who you find really difficult.  Pray for them on a regular basis - see if you can know them better.
• Resolve to speak to the little children who attend your church and give them and their families your attention.

 

General Lifestyle

• Substantially cut the amount of television you watch, spend time with family.
• Take a look at your weight and work out a suitable exercise regime to bolster your fitness.
• Analyse the amount of money you spend on luxuries.  Is this appropriate?  Change as necessary.
• Consider each area of your house in turn, and pray that God will bless the activities that go on there.  Let the enemy know he is not welcome in your home.
• Asses the balance of how long you spend in your home, and how long you spend socially in other places.  Think this through over a week, and resolve to make appropriate changes.