Regular Prayer Connects Us to God
Daily Scripture
Psalm 42:5-8, 1 Thessalonians 3:5-10
Psalm 42
5 Why, I ask myself, are you so depressed?
Why are you so upset inside?
Hope in God!
Because I will again give him thanks,
my saving presence and my God.
6 My whole being is depressed.
That’s why I remember you
from the land of Jordan and Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep called to deep at the noise of your waterfalls;
all your massive waves surged over me.
8 By day the Lord commands his faithful love;
by night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.
1 Thessalonians 3
5 That’s why I sent Timothy to find out about your faithfulness when I couldn’t stand it anymore. I was worried that the tempter might have tempted you so that our work would have been a waste of time.
6 Now Timothy has returned to us from you and has given us good news about your faithfulness and love! He says that you always have good memories about us and that you want to see us as much as we want to see you. 7 Because of this, brothers and sisters, we were encouraged in all our distress and trouble through your faithfulness. 8 For now we are alive if you are standing your ground in the Lord. 9 How can we thank God enough for you, given all the joy we have because of you before our God? 10 Night and day, we pray more than ever to see all of you in person and to complete whatever you still need for your faith.
Daily Reflection & Prayer
Both the Old and New Testaments spoke of regular prayer, both day and night, as a holy habit God’s people wouldn’t give up, even under pressures (cf. Daniel 6:10, Luke 2:37, 6:12). Through the centuries, various Christian groups developed plans for “praying the hours.” The Wesley brothers and their Oxford friends, too, chose to pray at specified times every day. In one pivotal sermon, Wesley asked, “How few of you spend, from one week to another, a single hour in private prayer?” *
- People often say something like, “It’s hard to pray regularly–I end up using the same tired words over and over.” It doesn’t have to be that way. You may want to check out books like 50 Ways to Pray: Practices from Many Traditions and Times by Teresa A. Blythe or Praying with the Psalms by Eugene Peterson. Every Sunday, the GPS offers you a weekly prayer tip. Consider choosing at least one time of day when you will commit to pray every day in the coming week.
- For many thinking people, prayer touches on cosmic mysteries and raises many questions. (Excellent books like Phillip Yancey’s Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? grapple with those big questions.) Who do you believe benefits most from prayer—God, you, or your relationship with God? In simple words, what would you tell a friend you believe is the main reason to pray (without denying any of the deeper questions that prayer raises)?
Prayer
Lord God, thank you for listening when I pray. Help me learn to listen for you, too, when I pray—and to speak with you as regularly as I do other things that are important to me. Amen.
GPS Insights
Mikiala Tennie
Mikiala Tennie, who serves as the Student Discipleship Program Director with Resurrection Students, wrote today’s Insight. She has nearly 20 years of ministry experience and loves encouraging others in their spiritual journey. Mikiala is blessed to be an adoptive aunt and godmother to many kiddos and lives with her 10-pound Yorkie, KiKi Okoye Tennie.
We recently talked through some important keywords with this year’s Confirmation students. One of the keywords we talked about is the word, “amen,” and how it derives from the Hebrew word for “believe.” It’s a word that expresses solidarity, trustworthiness, and faithfulness. It’s a word used to affirm and agree with the words that came before. Because of that, I encouraged the students not to just passively participate in prayers when they hear them, but to actively listen so they can join in participation so when they say, “amen,” they truly mean it!
Growing up, my mom taught us how important it is to use prayer to connect to God. She told me to actually listen when others prayed and use my ending “amen” as a stamp of my agreement. For many years, as children, we would have family prayer time right before bed. My two brothers and I would all climb into my parent’s bed in our PJs, fold our hands, bow our heads, and close our eyes. At some point during all those prayers I realized that my mom rarely said, “amen” at the end of our prayer time. I wondered if maybe she just didn’t want to stamp our prayers with her agreement… but that couldn’t be right. These were good prayers!
So, I asked her. Turns out, she did agree with our prayers, but for some reason, saying “amen” felt like saying “bye” to God and she didn’t want to say bye because she wanted her communication with God to be ongoing throughout her life. She told me there was a Bible verse she liked that said, “Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). For my mom, her reminder to be joyful, never stop praying, and to be thankful was to intentionally choose not to say “amen.” I always thought it was a strange choice, but that was how she connected with God–as an adult I can appreciate that. For me, knowing that I will be saying amen at the end of a prayer helps me stay focused on what’s being said, to lean in, participate with my mind and heart, and then eventually stamp my agreement with an amen.
However you choose to connect to God in prayer, I hope that you’re able to find your way to keep that pathway open, to lean in, participate with your mind and heart. May the chorus of all of our collective prayers and amens be felt and heard by God.
© 2025 Resurrection: A United Methodist Church. All Rights Reserved.
Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
References
* Hamilton, Adam, Revival: Faith as Wesley Lived It (p. 124). Abingdon Press. Kindle Edition.
