Praying through the Psalms
The prayer list prayer life can become monotonous and without meaning after awhile. It is one of the reasons that most Christians struggle with maintaining a consistent prayer time. Keeping a list is not at all a bad thing, but if prayer becomes merely reading the list, then most likely the prayer life will diminish or even vanish.
An alternative to the prayer list prayer life is a method called praying through the Psalms.
By selecting five psalms each day and reading them as if you were the psalmist, you will literally become the one praying what the Psalmist said. You will also find that the psalmist faced much the same things that you face each day. This helps us put into words those things that trouble us but we find difficult to say, even to God. Pray the Psalm, putting yourself in the place of the Psalmist, and talking to God as if the conversation were between you and God alone. The Psalms are the Word of God as inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. God’s Words represent God’s will and He is always pleased with both. There is a Biblical promise that if we pray according to His will, we know that He hears us. (I John 5:14-15)
Start reading with the Psalm that is numbered the same as the day then add thirty, sixty, ninety and one hundred and twenty to the number until you have Prayed five Psalms. For instance, if today were the 15th day of the month, you would pray the 15th, 45th, 75th, 105th and 135th. Save the Psalm 119 for the last day of the month and do it by itself. This will also help you read the Psalms through twelve times in a year. While you are praying the Psalms, as things on your prayer list or on your heart come to mind, accept that the Holy Spirit is reminding you of those things and pray for them at that point.
Using the Psalms to guide your prayer life will break the monotony as well as praying according to the will of God and in a manner that is pleasing to Him.
I actually learned to pray through the Psalms and the Scriptures from reading the life of George Mueller. I often wondered how those men could pray 4 and 5 hours a day without getting bored or going to sleep. Then one day in my reading I saw how Mueller said that he would read the Scriptures and turn them into a prayer.
Later in another book I saw where someone kept a prayer journal and of course I had heard of keeping the prayer list and putting down when God answered my prayers but the idea of the journal was to write down your prayers so that you could review them later and so you would have the discipline of getting alone with God and really thinking through what you were saying. I started reading my Bible and I started taking notes. I filled up journals and then threw them away.
Then while a missionary in Peru I learned the lesson of accountability. If I wanted to teach the young men how to be faithful in reading their Bibles I needed to have a tool. Word of Life had the Quiet Hour and did a form of this. Over the years it evolved with me until we would share each day what we had been reading. It went well.
Then I turned my into prayers. Then I started encouraging people long distance which was no longer difficult due to email. I now keep my prayer journal on a password protected and non visible blog. I then send my devotions to several different people each day.
It is a good way to be accountable and it is a good way to encouarage each other.
I hope you can get involved in doing just that.