Prayer Sparks

A 21-Day Devotional

What am I supposed to say to God?

When it comes to prayer & communion with God, many of us feel like it’s awkward, boring, and uncomfortable. Sure, you might feel better that you attempted to pray, but so much of the time we don’t feel any closer to God or that we accomplished anything meaningful during our prayer time.

Is it possible for prayer to be life-giving rather than stale and uninteresting?

The answer is emphatically, yes!

If you have longed for a deeper faith, a life with God and not merely about Him, but have found prayer difficult or uninteresting, this devotional is for you.

This devotional is designed to “spark” your prayer time.

It’s aimed to set you on a track that you can travel down on your own. I want to simply point you in a direction, and then allow you to run that way in your prayer time.

“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.”
John 7:37b-38 (NASB 95)

All of us have a deep craving in our soul to know God and be known by Him. Jesus wonderfully invites each of us into this life-giving relationship, and prayer is the means by which we experience it.

Prayer Sparks:
A 21-Day Devotional

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Day 1: Structure

One effective strategy to keep our minds focused is called the “ACTS” Prayer model. Each letter represents a different part of the prayer

Day 2: Adoration

Adoration simply means to praise God; to adore Him for who He is.

Day 3: Confession

Jesus paid the price for our sins on the cross, not so that we would hide them from God, but so that we could be cleansed from them.

Day 4: Thanksgiving

We can spend our prayer time listing all the things we think we still need from God, yet Psalm 23:1 reminds us that, really, we already have all that we need.

Day 5: Supplication

As we’ve come to God in worship, confession, and thanksgiving, let us make our requests known to God.

Day 6: Framework

The Lord’s Prayer is often recited mechanically & monotonously by Christians, yet Jesus intended this prayer to serve as a framework for how to commune with God.

Day 7: Worship

One aspect of worship throughout the Psalms is the use of nature to describe the attributes of God.

Day 8: Honesty

Confession is a window to greater depth with God. Without confession, we face the reality of sin’s curse on our lives.

Day 9: Gratitude

Maybe you, like a sheep, actually already have all that you need from your Good Shepherd.

Day 10: Praise

Following the example of David and the scriptures, when we feel at a loss for words, simply looking at the beauty around us in nature reminds us of the majesty of God.

Day 11: Stillness

In prayer, we often feel the need to fill the silence. If we perceive that no one is talking, we may feel that nothing is happening and we’re wasting time.

Day 12: Repentance

Confession is a humbling & significant practice for growth in our walk with God, but is only half the equation; the other half is repentance.

Day 13: Alignment

Often our prayers are like what C.S. Lewis calls “wide and shallow puddles,” covering a vast list of topics that cross our minds, but rarely going beyond requesting God to “just do something” about them.

Day 14: Life

Unfortunately, this is what so many think Christianity is primarily about; an insurance policy for when we die, so that we’ll end up in the Good Place instead of the Bad One.

Day 15: Breakfast

Imagine Jesus saying these words to you. What do you think to yourself?

Day 16: Embrace

There are times when we feel like calling it quits. We feel overwhelmed by the weight of our responsibility, our lack of ability, or our failures, and we’re tempted to go back to what’s familiar or easy.