Bible Reading
As you walk through this framework in prayer, rely on the Holy Spirit to guide you through each section. Sometimes you may spend longer on one section depending on what your soul needs. If you are struggling to believe that you are loved by your Father, spend time focusing on the beginning part of the prayer! If you are in a conflict with someone, it makes sense to spend a good amount of time focusing on forgiving those who sin against you, that your heart would be free from bitterness. Regularly create space in your life to hear His voice will attune your heart to His. Often a depth in our relationship with God comes from disciplining ourselves to turn to Him and seek His face.
Our desire is that you would pray your own prayer using this framework and experience a meaningful connection with God!
Our desire is that you would pray your own prayer using this framework and experience a meaningful connection with God!
R.E.A.D. Method
How can we meaningfully connect with God when we read the Bible? R.E.A.D. is an acronym for a method to help you understand what you read and see how it connects to your life with God.
Reading Plan
Sometimes the most difficult part of building a daily Bible reading habit is knowing what to read. You can jump on-board with the OneLife Bible Reading plan and read the same passages our whole church is reading together!
Worship Practice
Expressing worship is the practice of getting a right view of God in our lives. It is the act of stirring our affections for Him. When we worship, we are not merely expressing what we feel about God; we are wrestling our feelings into alignment with what is actually true about God. The Bible teaches us to express worship with our whole being by singing (Ephesians 5:19 ), dancing (Psalm 149:3), bowing (Psalm 95:6), raising our hands (Psalm 141:2), shouting (Psalm 100:1), and much more!
OneLife Worship Playlist
Expressing worship in song is not just for corporate worship settings, but also something you can do in your own time with God. If your “quiet time” practice has become dry, incorporating personal worship will make a huge difference in helping you meaningfully connect with God. Here’s a link to a playlist with the current worship songs we sing at our weekend services:
Gospel Affirmations
The gospel is the good news about all that Jesus has accomplished for us by His life, His death, and His resurrection. As followers of Jesus, we must take hold of these realities for ourselves. We must really believe that all of God’s promises are “yes” for us in Christ (2 Cor 1:20). Here is a resource for practicing gospel affirmations - leading your heart to confidence in all that Christ has done for you.
Victory Practices
In the Psalms and throughout the Old Testament, there are seven Hebrew words used for “praise” that help us understand what it looks like to engage more meaningfully with worship. These seven words teach us “victory practices” that stir our hearts to rejoice in the victory of Jesus. Here’s a link to a PDF description of these practices:
Prayer
Prayer is talking to God. It’s relational, not a ritual. It’s the real you meeting the real God. We talk with God because He is our Dad, and we are His children! Jesus has restored us to a close, intimate relationship with our Father in Heaven. The primary way we engage that relationship is through prayer.
Daily Prayer
The Daily Prayer is a prayer written by John Eldrige to help Christians center their hearts on all that God is for them. This prayer is theologically rich. It helps us treasure the good news of Jesus, and it engages our hearts with the work of each person of the Trinity in our lives - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You can access the daily prayer PDF or the daily prayer read by John Eldrige below:
The Lord's Prayer
God sent Jesus to Earth to not only conquer sin and death, but he also gave us a way to know him as our Father. We are his sons and daughters! This first step is vitally important because it’s where we apply the Gospel to our lives. Because we are aware of our failures, it can cause us to run in shame, afraid of God’s rejection. But by starting our time in prayer declaring God as our Father, we wrestle our hearts to believe the truth about what God has done on our behalf.
P.R.A.Y. Method
Growing in prayer means we actively work to pray more consistently and more meaningfully. The first step is to spend intentional time with God in prayer each day. The P.R.A.Y. method is easy to remember, and a very helpful guide:
Fasting
Fasting is abstaining from food for spiritual purposes. Twice a year, our church participates in an all church fast in order to seek God with all of our hearts corporately. Beyond our corporate fasts, personal fasting is also a great practice for believers to earnestly seek God. You may decide to fast because of a particular need or challenge you are facing in life. Or you may fast on a regular basis to lead your heart to seek God more earnestly (for example - fasting 1 meal a week, or one day a month). Here’s a link to our All Church Fast page, which includes a description of different ways you can choose to participate in fasting: