One of the problems that I face, personally, is that I get overwhelmed following my own excitement with something and, after a while, I have to take a step back.
This has been true, recently, in my prayer life. I love my prayer time. I love to get up in the early morning and spend time reading God’s word, praying, and journaling. As I do with many things, when things are going well, I begin to add a little bit more to it. In the case of prayer—I add another list…I add another category to pray for…or I even taking on a new spiritual discipline that begins to drain the very energy that was encouraging me to get up in the morning in the first place.
So, recently, I’ve scaled back my prayer times to focus, once again on what worked and got me excited o pray more. I have a 4X6 card with just ten areas of intercession—wife, kids, commanders, chaplains, etc. and ten areas of personal concerns—preaching, ministry, planning, etc. This doesn’t sound like much, but it takes a lot of time and energy to go through those and to add to it has bogged me down to where I become unable to listen and simply get through a list.
The lesson for me is that—there are plenty of concerns out there. You could literally be in front of a prayer list 24/7 and still not finish the list. You must pick your prayer list based on what God is calling you to pray. The other lesson is to be faithful—continually praying; continually bringing before God your requests as you see them through the day.
A prayer time is not successful because you have prayer for many things—a prayer time is successful because you have met with God.