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The following is an excerpt of a sermon by the Lead Minister, Adam Cetrangolo, on Sunday 7 January entiled "Praying Differently" the second message in a series on the book of James entitled "Doing Life Differently."

Enhancing your prayer life is not necessarily about doing more, it's about being intentional about what might be lacking.  An excellent musician, athlete or academic becomes so by constantly training, growing and developing these gifts.  Use it or lose it!  The gifts of the spirit, the gift of prayer are gifts that need exercising and development too. If we only use them when life gets rough, we will struggle, if we exercise them with regular rhythms and practices we will know how to call upon them when needed.

  1. Find yourself a good bible app or hardcopy resource for the year 
    All of these I can recommend personally as I am either am currently using them or have used them in the past.
    • The Bible App (Life Church)
      The most well-known Bible App with many devotional resources.  Currently downloaded on over 635 million devices worldwide.

    • The Bible with Nicky and Pippa Gumbel
      Formerly Bible in One Year.  An amazing resource that allows you to read the whole bible in one year with excellent prayer and commentary for each day.

    • Lectio 365
      This is a more reflective daily devotion with a morning and evening time of prayer.  It is excellent for stilling the body and the mind and listening to the Lord.

    • Prayer Mate
      This is great for keeping up with all the people and organisations that you wish to pray for.  You can customise it to your liking.

    • REAP Journal (hardcopy)
      There is an app version for this but it works best in hardcoipy form as a journal.  It provide sthe opportunity to read through the whole Bible in a year with the added practice of journalling as you read.

  2. Journal
    This is not everyone's strength but it has rich benefits in prayer if you can find a practice of journalling that suits you.  You'll find some good tips for how to do this here.  These are just suggestions.  Another is to use your journal like a prayer diary, record your prayer points, tick them off when prayers get answered.  At the end of the year, your journal is a testimony to God's faithfulness.

  3. Consider what prayer practice might be lacking and add that to the mix this year:
    i.e. More listening time, more petitions, more Bible Reading, more exercising spiritual gifts, etc.

  4. Join a Connect Group
    We will have another intake in February.  In the meanwhile, find out more here.

  5. Come to Church (every Sunday)
    Many in the Church today who claim to attend Church regularly mean 2 or 3 times a month.  Hebrews 10 reminds us to not neglect meeting together.  It's hard to get to Church every single week but if we aim to attend every Sunday, we will come to the end of this year and discover that we've been much more regular.

  6. Schedule in some prayer days or an Annual Retreat
    This is a great practice for some dedicated 'going deep with the Lord' days.  Whether you go away for a few nights or just plan some single days, it will only happen if you schedule it into your diary.  January is the best time to do that.  Make it a 2024 priority!

  7. Fast
    Some find this harder than others.  For some it is a regular practice and others have seldom if ever done it.  It is a great spiritual discipline even if you only do it once or twice a year.  In the western world we are accustomed to going to the pantry or the fridge as soon as there's a littl rumble in our bellies.  When we fast, we experience the rumble but we allow the Lord to heighten our sense and turn toward him instead of the pantry.  If you're not familiar with this, give it a try.

  8. Make St Hilary’s Prayer Nights but of your regular rhythm of prayer
    From February these will take place on the first and third Monday of each month.

  9. Learn more about prayer – read some books, listen to some podcasts, take a course
    St Hilary's will be offering a Prayer Course in the second half of this year.  We'd love you to join us.  In the meanwhile you might like to visit the 24-7 Prayer website for free resources and book recommendations.

  10. Consider spiritual reading – what can you include in your reading list for this year?
    If you're the kind of person who has a list of books you hope to read this year.  Make one or two of them a spiritual read.  It could be a classic like C.S. Lewis or something new.  Check out Koorong's "New Beginnings" collection currently 20% off or an Audible or Kindle subscription.