I told you on Sunday that I am not a very good pray-er. It’s kind of funny because I love to pray. I love to bear my soul with God and connect with him. I love to take a walk, smoke a cigar, and simply be with God. But I don’t think I am very good at it.

Maybe that’s because I grew up listening to sermon illustrations about great pray-ers. They were the men and women who would get up at 4 o’clock in the morning to spend hours with God before they did anything else. I distinctly remember sermon illustrations about the prayerful stylings of George Mueller, Martin Luther, Charles Spurgeon, and Abraham Lincoln. I can remember thinking to myself, “That’s great, but I could never do that.”

And then I began to learn about the things Rick Warren talked about in today’s chapter of The Purpose-Driven Life. Prayer can be an ongoing conversation between me and God. It can flow naturally along the contours of my day. How liberating that is!

Breath prayers can be like mental screen savers for us. When nothing else is on your mind, you can slip into thinking about and repeating a significant statement to or about God. I would encourage you to give the discipline of breath prayers a try during these 40 days of purpose. If you don’t know what to pray, try repeating a phrase from our Colossians 1.9-14 passage - “joyfully giving thanks to the Father,” “live a life worthy of the Lord,” “bearing fruit in the every good work,” “qualified to share.”

Give it a try, and share some of your prayer experiences.