By Dana Olson
I used a common pastor’s technique: I made up a statistic. Speaking to a group of men at a fine New England congregation on a Saturday morning, I said, “I would guess that about 85% of people really struggle with discipline and consistency in their practice of prayer. I know I do. The other 15% are probably engineers or something similar, highly organized and systematic about everything in their life.”
My comment was met with guffaws of laughter and huge grins. I had no clue why until I was told. Nearby was a large IBM center and I was speaking to a bunch of engineers.
Layering Prayer into Your Life
So, how did I solve my own struggle with consistency in prayer? For years I did it without giving it a name, but now I call it “layering prayer into your life.” Layer upon layer, including other people in my life and ministry, until there was no way I couldn’t pray every day.
Mondays were elder meetings. And our elders didn’t just give lip service to prayer. Twice a month we were on our knees for an extended period, interceding for our church body and for greater kingdom purposes.
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Tuesday staff meetings were much the same every week. Our staff knew that considerable time would be spent in intercession. We promised our congregation that every prayer request submitted would be prayed for without fail. Often our list ran to 30, 40, or even 50 requests long. Both our elder counsel and our staff learned to love to pray.
Wednesday night was weekly prayer meeting, which as long as I was senior pastor I never relinquished leadership to someone else. It was a small but hearty and committed group of prayer lovers, first in person, then because of Covid, online, then continuing on Zoom because shut-ins loved to be included.
Most Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays it was Planet Fitness with my pastor friend Dennis. After “not so vigorous” treadmill and pumping iron (in small doses) we sit at a small table and pray. We’re now known as “those prayer guys” and both staff and fellow exercisers we’ve met know we pray for them.
Sunday morning early before our two services, a small group of leaders met with me in our Conference Room, where once again we were on our knees calling upon the Lord to be present and powerful by His Spirit in our worship and preaching.
Those aren’t the only layers of prayer in my life. Every counseling appointment, every hospital call or chance meeting with a hurting individual, every distressed phone call–earnest prayer. Then there is praying with my wife and special-needs daughter at mealtimes and before bed. Plus the desperate cries to our heavenly Father in the night hours when sleep is illusive, prayer over a difficult Bible passage for preaching or teaching, prayers of joy at blessings and breakthroughs.
Layer by layer, a prayer life is built, even for the 85%. Yes, that’s still a made-up statistic. You might put the percentage higher or lower.
Whatever the number, the battle is real, that battle against prayerlessness in ministry. How often I was haunted by Samuel’s words in I Samuel 12:23, “Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you…” and by Paul’s exhortation to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17).
Haunted, that is, until I learned to layer prayer into my life every single day. Now, prayer abounds more and more. It can in your life, too.
About the Pastor:
Dana Olson recently ‘refocused’ after more than 41 years in ministry as a pastor and prayer leader. He is Director of Prayer First Heartland, preaching, teaching, and leading prayer events from his home base in Sioux Falls, SD.
