Jeffrey C. Long

Aren’t those two strange words to put together: Prayer hacks? Let me explain. Anything we do, we can learn to do better, and often the difference between one and another is simply implementing tricks that allow you to accomplish more then you did before. I think it’s ok to apply the same principle to prayer.

Silence: I have at times practiced silence as a spiritual discipline. This isn’t exactly prayer because I am not praying, nor even directing myself at God. I am simply letting my mind clear of all the cruft that accumulates. Today while doing it, I noticed that I gradually placed myself sitting in the presence of God.

What was helpful about this is that often in prayer I am trying to shut my mind up of all the voices that are pouring into it. What happened today was that I shut the voices up at the front end. I think that this may be a good practice. To silence ourselves before prayer. To not try and do the two things at the same time.

Notecards: The other thing to do to silence the voices is to write them down. David Allen says “You should never have to think the same thought twice, unless you like having that thought.” Writing it down gets it into a safe place where my brain doesn’t have to think about it. By carrying a few stickies or notecards into my prayer time, I am able to jot things down as they come to mind, and get back to prayer. The end result is that I am able to focus more on God, and less on my agenda.

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