6 Simple Ways to Find More Time in Your Day to Pray

Need more time to pray? Try one of these 6 tips to spend more time with God in prayer.

The Bible says to pray without ceasing but it’s hard to do because you’re busy. You’ve got jobs, families, volunteering, and church. You have all these really important things that you need to do. So it can be difficult to find the time in your day to have conversations with God and grow closer to him.

If you are struggling with that, then I am going to give you some hacks that are going to help you find the time to pray every single day. Prayer is such an important part of our faith. It is an important part of helping you stay connected to God, especially when you are going through hard times.

I am a super busy woman. I am a single mom. I homeschool. I’ve got four boys. My oldest is 17 and my youngest is three, and they are all doing very different things all of the time. We’re involved in our church, they’re involved in activities, and I run this business.

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I realized a couple of years back that I was so busy to the point that I wasn’t taking the time that I needed to spend with God. That was no bueno because there was no way that I was going to maintain all the things that I had on my plate, all the things that God had called me to do if I was not staying connected to him in prayer.

Listen, there’s no way to make time to pray. There’s no way to create more hours in the day. Man, I wish. Actually, I don’t because I feel like if there was a possibility that I could make more time, I would just fill it with more things and it would be a mess. But I digress.

It is about finding time in your day to pray, and I promise you that it’s there. God gives you 24 hours every single day, and he gives this command to spend time with him in prayer. He wouldn’t have done those two things if it was going to be impossible to spend time with God in the 24 hours that he gives you.

You just have to make better use of your time. We’ve talked before about taking time to evaluate what you are doing with your day because a lot of times your days are filled with unnecessary and unimportant things.

They may be good things, they may be great things, but they’re not always the best things that God wants for you. Take some time to look at your schedule, look at your responsibilities, and see if there is a way to create some more margin so that you can have time to spend with God.

Today I want to give you just some creative suggestions of ways that you can incorporate prayer into your day so that you can be more consistent without adding more time to your day.

Making Time to Pray Tip #1: Make Prayer Part of Your Day

The first thing is to make prayer a part of your day. This is a tip that I was given when was a brand-new mama many years ago. The sweet lady encouraged me to take God’s command to pray without ceasing as an invitation to invite him into all aspects of my day.

This could look and a variety of ways. A friend of mine prays when she gets up in the morning and starts to make up her bed. When she goes to her husband’s side of the bed, she takes that minute that she’s straightening the sheets and the pillow and things, and she prays for him.

I did this thing where back when I used to do all my kids’ laundry, I’ve since delegated that job, but as I was folding laundry, I would pray for the child whose laundry I was folding. I’ve done this in so many ways, praying while I’m doing laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, or washing the dishes.

Just make prayer a part of your day and incorporate it into whatever you are doing. If it’s a time when you’re already doing something together as a family, incorporate prayer into that. Time in the car or on road trips when you have a captive audience, take advantage of those moments.

Making Time to Pray Tip #2: Use Your Calendar

Another thing that I like to do to help me with praying is to use my calendar. When I first heard this, I thought this was the most genius thing that I’ve ever heard of. I have days each month where I am specifically focused on fasting and/or praying for each of my children.

There are so many ways to do this. I have heard of mamas where every Monday is their day to pray and fast for their kids. What I like to do, and something that kind of helps me just be more intentional, is give each of my kids their own day.

I don’t just choose a day at random. I use their birth date. One of my boys is born on the third of a month, another on the fifth, the next one on the 10th, and the youngest was born on the 14th. On that date for every single month, that is their specific day when I am being intentional about praying and fasting for them.

On the third, fifth, tenth, and fourteenth of every month, I pray for each child. There are 12 days a year when I am storming heaven on behalf of my children. They each have those days each month. It can be a little interesting if all your birthdays are clumped together.

It’s a lot for me at the beginning of the month, but it’s so worth it because I can just put a little note in my calendar and it reminds me, which child I’m praying for. You can do the same thing for your anniversary.

If you’re married, take your wedding date and take that day and dedicate that to praying for your spouse and for praying for your marriage. Please, by all means, do not forget yourself. Put yourself on your calendar as a person to have an intentional day to pray for as well.

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Making Time to Pray Tip #3: Use Your Phone

Along with a calendar, I like to use alarms on my phone. Basically what you do is you use your phone to set reminders to pray. In scripture, there are different watches: first watch, second watch, etc. Essentially there were just set times of every day when people were praying.

When I’m having a season where I’m really focused on prayer, I will pick a time and set it on my phone. So I might decide to pray at 9:00 AM, at 1:00 PM, and again at 7:00 PM. I just set my alarm to remind me to pray.

Here is the thing about using your phone. You want to pick a ringtone that’s different from what you normally use for phone calls or texts because if it’s the same thing, you’ll ignore it it will become background noise and you won’t respond to it.

There’s no method to how I choose the times. I just pick times. I set my alarm for those times, and when my phone goes off, I stop, take a minute, pray, and go back to what I was doing.

Making Time to Pray Tip #4: Use the Clock

This next tip goes with my calendar tip. Take your special day, birthday, anniversary, or whatever it is, and when that shows up on the clock, then you can stop and pray for that person. For my child who was born on October 5th, at 10:05 during the day I’m going to stop and pray for him. You can set your alarms that way as well.

Making Time to Pray Tip #5: Make a Swap

You can also dedicate the time that you would normally spend doing something else to prayer. Maybe you don’t watch your TV show one night and instead, you dedicate that time to prayer. Maybe you want to set your commute aside to pray.

Take something that isn’t the best thing and replace that time by going for a prayer walk. This is probably one of my favorite ways to pray. I go for a walk a few times a week. I exercise, I get outside, I clear my mind, and I will do different things on my walk.

Sometimes I’ll listen to an audiobook or music, but a lot of times I take that time to pray. I’m outside. I’m not distracted, I’m alone. It’s the perfect time to just walk and talk with God about what’s on my heart. I find that being outside in nature allows me to connect with God and experience him in a way that I don’t when I am praying indoors.

Making Time to Pray Tip #6: Don’t Pray Alone

The final suggestion that I have is to get a prayer group or a prayer partner. Usually, when other people are involved, you’re going to show up. If you know that other people are relying on you or expecting you to show up and pray, you will be there and you will pray.

Part of the reason why I joined my prayer team at church is because that accountability and that expectation are helping me be consistent with praying for other people and being able to serve my church in that way.

Get one partner, and maybe you’re going to pray at eight o’clock every Monday for your kids, or we’re going to pray every Wednesday night for your families. Whatever it is, create a plan and stick to it. Having that group together to pray with, it’s going to be encouraging and edifying, and it’s a great way to practice those one anothers in the bible.

Having a group of people that you’re meeting with regularly, even just one other person to share your heart with, to share what you’re struggling with, and you can pray for them and they can pray for you is so important. Good times, bad times, and in-between times.

6 Simple Ways to Find More Time to Pray Everyday