Praying Through My Day – Night 1
Praying Through My Day – Night 2
I’m too busy NOT to see the Holy Spirit in every opportunity!
I’m too busy NOT to see the Holy Spirit in every opportunity!
If prayer doesn’t seem to work, it’s because we are missing something – the Holy Spirit - and
because we have most likely fallen into the trap that prayer is a moment in time, or something I
do when I have a free moment and I’m not busy. But 1 Thessalonians 5:17 teaches us something
far different. It tells us to “Pray without ceasing.” This means praying non-stop!
1 Corinthians 4:20 is a blunt verse that will convict us all if we’re honest. It says, “For the
Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power.” We’ve learned already that
our power is the Holy Spirit. So the question is this: is my life in Jesus just a lot of talk? Or is it
lived with power through the Holy Spirit?!
This is another way to “Make the most of every opportunity…” (Ephesians 5:16) like we learned
about in part one of this series. Rather than believing the lie that I am too busy to experience
God in my life, I can leverage my busyness and realize that I’m too busy NOT to experience God
in my life!
Let’s go a little deeper. When you think about your prayer life, is it just a lot of talk? Or is it a
prayer life of power? If you are like most and lean more toward the “talk” side, God does not
want it to be that way! He wants you to live and pray with power! Learning to pray through your
day by responding to the Holy Spirit working through the situations, events, and people in your
life will help you do just that.
To do that, we will begin to learn how to pray without ceasing by learning how to experience
the Holy Spirit at work in our lives every moment of every day. As we do this, we will begin to
make conversation and relationship with the Holy Spirit a powerful, revitalized part of our
relationship with God like never before!
The key will be learning to see, feel, hear, and experience the Holy Spirit drawing us to Himself
every day of our lives, specifically through the situations, events, and people we encounter
(John 6:44, James 1:17). Then we will begin to know how to pray like never before!
1. What situations, events, or people did you encounter today that the Holy Spirit could
have been using to draw you to Himself, even if you may not have realized it then?
2. How could you have or how did you acknowledge the power and presence of the Spirit
in those moments? How could it or did it lead you to pray in that moment?
The first step is learning to be thankful in prayer. An awareness of God’s goodness and
generosity is the foundation of our relationship with God. Without thankfulness, our relationship
with God is all about what more I can get. Once I recognize God’s goodness rather than focusing
on what I want or don’t have, I can then feel gratitude. And when I begin to see God’s goodness
in the situations, events, and people throughout my day, I begin to see the power of the Holy
Spirit alive in my life.
1. Think through the situations, events, and people you encountered today. What can you
be thankful for? Tell the Holy Spirit where you experienced God’s goodness today.
2. Sometimes a mood of resentment or depression makes gratitude difficult. That’s when
you must acknowledge, at whatever level we can, the truth of God’s goodness to you.
When is it difficult for you to be thankful? Ask the Holy Spirit to help you through this.
3. Read Matthew 6:31-34. If you focus on the right things tomorrow, what will be
different? How will you use the 60/60 experiment to make it different?
3. 1 Corinthians 4:7. What in your life do you see as a gift from God? Ask the Holy Spirit to
help you use the 60/60 experiment to be thankful for the situations, events, and people
you experience tomorrow that He is using to draw you to Himself.
Pray: Holy Spirit, as I prepare for tomorrow please help me to be aware of your power and presence in
the situations, events, and people I encounter. Help me to pause at least every 60 minutes and
recognize the situations, events, and people around me, and how you might be using those to draw
me to yourself in that very moment.
Pray: Holy Spirit, as I prepare for tomorrow please help me to be aware of your goodness in the
circumstances, events, and people I encounter so that I can be thankful for your power and presence
in my life at all times. Help me to pause at least every 60 minutes and recognize the circumstances,
events, and people around me, and how you might be drawing me to yourself in that very moment.
Praying Throu gh My Day – Night 3
Praying Through My Day – Night 4
I’m too busy NOT to see the Holy Spirit in every opportunity!
I’m too busy NOT to see the Holy Spirit in every opportunity!
One of the greatest lies that we can believe is that our hearts will lead us where we need to go.
Jeremiah 17:9 teaches us that, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can
understand it?” This can make praying through our day difficult if we are relying on our heart to
show us where to be thankful or to recognize the move of the Holy Spirit through the situations,
events, and people around us.
Experiencing the power of God throughout your day might happen not as you try to think about
where you felt Him moving, but by just thinking and praying through the day – period! There
might be situations, events, or people that He was using to draw you in and you didn’t realize it
at the time.
Start tonight’s time of praying through your day with these two steps:
That’s why taking a moment to ask the Holy Spirit to shed light on those moments he was at
work is so important. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten us about what happened
throughout today because we are only too aware of our own blindness to see Him in the
persons and events of our day. We can be ignorant of the movements of our heart, rationalize
our motives, and deceive ourselves about what is going on. To truly know ourselves is not
something we are able to do on our own. We need to ask the Holy Spirit for the light that can
reveal us to ourselves.
Take a moment tonight to add this to your conversation with the Spirit as your pray through
your day. Start with thankfulness, and then ask the Holy Spirit to bring light to where you may
have experienced him today, or where you possibly missed him.
1. Start by thanking the Holy Spirit for the situations, events, or people you encountered
throughout your day where you saw, felt, or experienced His goodness.
2. Ask the Holy Spirit to shed light on your heart so you can see where He is trying to make
himself known to you. What do you feel is being pointed out as you pray this?
1.
2.
Thanks (see night 2)
Light (see night 3)
Then, make a list of the people you encountered, the events that happened, and the situations
you found yourself in. Then ask some of these questions as you consider your list:
•
•
•
•
Did I feel drawn by the Lord any time today in any of these?
What have I learned about the Lord and his ways today?
How did the Holy Spirit come alive to me today?
How am I becoming more alert to God at work in the world around me?
The review of our day is not simply a mental exercise, it is prayer. It is going through our day
with God, aware of our inner feelings, thoughts and desires, which is where we experience God's
call in the midst of everyday activity. The goal Is to begin experiencing this not just at the end of
the day in retrospect, but throughout the day in real time! That’s when our prayer life is radically
transformed.
1. What are the biggest things that surprise you about how God is using the situations,
events, and people in your life to draw you to Himself? How is that changing your view of
the Holy Spirit and your relationship with him?
3. Read Psalm 139:23. Turn this verse into a prayer. How can you apply this verse to your
60/60 experiment tomorrow as you pause to experience the power and presence of God?
2. Read Job 7:18. How often is God at work according to this verse? How does this apply to
your 60/60 experiment as you pause to experience the power and presence of God?
Pray: Holy Spirit, as I prepare for tomorrow please show me where my heart might be allowing
darkness to block out the light of your power and presence in the situations, events, and people I
encounter. Help me to pause at least every 60 minutes and recognize the situations, events, and
people around me, and how you might be using those to draw me to yourself in that very moment.
Pray: Holy Spirit, as I prepare for tomorrow please help me to see, feel, and experience your power
and presence in the situations, events, and people I encounter in the moment, not just at the end of
the day. Help me to pause at least every 60 minutes and recognize the situations, events, and people
around me, and how you might be using those to draw me to yourself in that very moment.
Praying Through My Day – Night 5
Praying Through My Day – Night 6
I’m too busy NOT to see the Holy Spirit in every opportunity!
I’m too busy NOT to see the Holy Spirit in every opportunity!
Recognizing that the Holy Spirit is always at work, drawing you to Himself is a HUGE step to
understanding more about his power and presence! But your prayer life will take a giant leap
forward as well when you learn to respond to what you have experienced.
Now that we have broken down each step to praying through your day, take the next two nights
to simply do just that. Remember, each of the steps are:
As you did yesterday, start with thanks and light as you pray through your day. Then add your
daily review, making a list of the people, events, and situations you experienced. But don’t stop
there. Then ask the Holy Spirit to help you understand how you responded to those experiences.
The best question to ask is this: did I allow that person, event or situation to draw me closer to
the Holy Spirit or further away? Regardless of what it was, one of those two things happened!
Add that to your list. Then ask God to show you how to being to respond throughout the day to
his power and presence.
1. Pray through you day: thanks, light, and review the people, events, and situations you
experienced.
2. How did you respond to each of those? Did you allow it to draw you closer to God or
further from him. How can you respond differently tomorrow in the moment?
3. Read James 4:8. How does your 60/60 experiment tomorrow give you opportunity to
draw near to God as you experience the power and presence of God?
Pray: Holy Spirit, as I prepare for tomorrow please help me to respond to the situations, events, and
people I encounter in a way that will draw me closer to you, rather than further away from you. Help
me to pause at least every 60 minutes and recognize the situations, events, and people around me,
and how you might be using those to draw me to yourself in that very moment.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Thanks (night 2)
Light (night 3)
Review (night 4)
Response (night 5)
Tomorrow – pray that the Holy Spirit helps you experience him in the situations,
events, and people you encounter
Use the space on this devotional guide or a notebook to jot down those thoughts and to answer
this question: How can you begin to use this process of praying through your day to help you
pray throughout your day, not just at the end of it?
Praying Through My D ay – Night 7
I’m too busy NOT to see the Holy Spirit in every opportunity!
Now that we have broken down each step to praying through your day, take this last night to
simply do just that. Remember, each of the steps are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Thanks (night 2)
Light (night 3)
Review (night 4)
Response (night 5)
Tomorrow – pray that the Holy Spirit helps you experience him in the situations,
events, and people you encounter
Then answer these two simple questions:
1.
How does this change my prayer life in the midst of my busyness? How did I pray
before and what is different now?
2.
How am I experiencing God through the situations, events, and people that I
encounter everyday? How has the 60/60 experiment helped me with that?