There are many different ways to structure your daily prayer time. The Church over time has had many wonderful suggestions, but one thing everyone agrees on is that you need a plan. If you don’t have a plan you will most likely end up doing nothing at all. Below is a common and helpful outline for a daily quiet time. My suggestion is to follow the flow and be intentional about engaging your heart, mind, and soul. At times you may find your attention arrested by a verse or psalm. If this happens, abandon the outline immediately and meditate on what God is showing you. As time permits return to the outline. Be firm about having a prayer time daily but do not be rigid with the time.

  It is helpful to think of your morning prayer time as a short, private worship service that moves from the call to worship to the benediction.   Morning Prayer Time  

• Address Him as God and Father - This corrects the lie that we are self sufficient, guards us against sin, relieves us of the tyranny of self centeredness, and grounds us in what is true. Consider using our call to worship.
• Read Scripture - Our prayers must be rooted in Scripture where he has told us about himself and his creation. Consider using the sermon text, reading, and memory passage from Sunday.
• Meditation - Fill your mind with God’s truth and consider it well. Ask Luther’s questions of the text.

1. What does this text show me about God for which I should praise or thank him?
2. What does the text show me about my sin that I should confess and repent of? What false attitudes, behavior, emotions, or idols come alive in me whenever I forget this truth?
3. What does the text show me about a need that I have? What do I need to do or become in light of this? How shall I petition God for it?
4. How is Jesus Christ or the grace that I have in him crucial to helping me overcome the sin I have confessed or to answering the need I have?
5. Finally: How would this change my life if I took it seriously— if this truth were fully alive and effective in my inward being? Also, why might God be showing this to me now? What is going on in my life that he would be bringing this to my attention today?

• ACTS(L) - Adore God, confess your sins to him, give thanksgiving for what he has done, ask him to meet your needs, or cry out to him for explanation and deliverance.    

  Evening Prayer   Your evening prayer should be a time of reflection, confession, and setting your heart on God’s faithfulness. Consider making it a shorter time, maybe 10 minutes.

• Address God
• Read a Psalm
• Pray the Psalm
• Reflect on your day and confess you sins

  -CC