(Day 20 of a series called “23 days to a better devotional life.” I’m posting daily this month on devotions. Three more days to go. Thanks for reading.)

Yesterday I wrote about keeping my prayers balanced in five areas: praise, thanksgiving, confession, requests, and listening. Today, as promised, I’ll elaborate on each of these areas.

PRAISE

Praise is such an essential ingredient in prayer. Normally I praise God before I bring Him my requests.

Psalm 100:4-5 says,

“Enter… his courts with praise… praise His name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.”

When we praise God for His awesome, unchanging qualities, we realize and remember who we’re talking to. God is not just our friend. He’s our Creator. He’s holy. He’s powerful. He existed before there was time. He is perfectly just yet perfectly merciful.

As I remind myself of God’s characteristics, I begin to have the proper perspective towards life. God is bigger than my life. God is bigger than my agenda. God is bigger than my problems. And praising God puts me the right attitude to give thanks, confess my sins, make requests, and listen to God.

THANKS

Psalm 40:5 says,

Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare.

How many times in our busy lives do we slow down and take time to count our blessings? There are so many things to be thankful for. But we must develop the habit of recognizing our blessings. I blogged about picking a number and then thanking God for that many things. This works for me because I’m forcing myself to be specific with my requests. I’m building the habit of going through my previous hours and seeing where God has blessed.

I believe that a thankful person is a content person. When we are grateful and have a positive attitude, we will have more joy in our lives. We will realize how generous God really is.

CONFESSION

Psalm 139: 23-24 says,

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

This is the toughest thing for me to do in my prayer life. I do not enjoy confessing my sins to God. However, three things encourage me to do it.

First, God wants me to grow spiritually. He wants me to become more and more like Christ. For this growth to happen, I must not be in denial of my sins. Confession helps my deal with my sin whereas denial allows the sin to fester and grow.

Also, remember that even though growth requires discipline and hard work, there’s rewards to spiritual development. I experience more love, peace, and joy as I grow in the faith.

Second, God is willing to forgive my sin no what how horrible it is. 1 John 1:9 says,

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Third, I realize that I’m a sinner. I’m going to sin even though I try my hardest not to. I’m going to sin and not even realize it until later. Like King David, I may even need another person like the prophet Nathan to show me my wrongdoings. So, I shouldn’t be surprised when I find sin in my life. Of course, this is not an excuse to give up on living a holy life. I must strive to be more and more godly, but I realize that my perfection will never be fully complete until Christ’s second coming. In the meantime, there’s always room for improvement.

During my confession time, I go through the previous hours of my life and remember times when I did ungodly things or thought sinful thoughts.

REQUESTS

I think it’s a good idea to have a prayer list. I have a prayer list with the names of my close friends and family. Whenever I pray for anyone on this list, I put a check mark beside their name. I want to pray consistently for all of them. So periodically I look at my list to see if there are names that don’t have as many check marks as the others. I been neglecting to pray for those people, so I spend some time praying for them.

Also, when it comes to praying for myself, I think about the things that I worry about. I think about the concerns in my life. And I bring these things to God and ask Him to lead and guide. This is still tough for me, but I think it’s the right thing to do. Instead of worrying, I should pray. Check out what Philippians 4:6 says,

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

LISTENING

This is a new thing I’ve added to my prayer life. Basically, it’s a time to be quiet, stop praying, and see if God has some thoughts He wants to communicate to me. Notice what Samuel prayed in 1 Samuel 3:10,

“Speak, for your servant is listening.”

I know this kinda sounds mystical, but I really think if we slow down enough God will occasionally speak wisdom and love into our minds. I don’t always feel like God speaks to me during this time. But many times I can sense God assuring me that He’ll help me through the day. I can sense Him assuring me that He loves me. Sometimes God will even remind me of an errand that I need to do.

We should take time in each of these five areas, because the Bible commands us to. Notice that I gave a verse in each of the areas. I’m not advocating being too mechanical with our prayers. We should be open and honest with God. Yet at the same time, when we pray with a plan, our prayers become more balanced and complete.

We each have a tendency to focus on certain aspect(s) of prayer. I was just talking to a friend. She was saying how she tends to make requests to God instead of thanking Him. I’m different. I tend to thank God and forget to pray for myself. However, God calls us to have a complete prayer life. He urges us to praise, give thanks, confess our sins, make requests, and listen to Him.

Out of the five areas, which ones do you tend to do? Which ones do you tend to neglect?