Do you have trouble with commitment to prayer? Sometimes, I go for long periods of time with a rich, full prayer life, then it slips away and for months I struggle to regain that intimacy and depth with the Lord. This write-up emerged at the end of a long dry time, when I was so ashamed of my prayerlessness that I cried out to the Lord for help. I woke up one morning and yelled at the Lord, " I HAVE TO have a quality hour with You! I can only do it with Your grace. Please, please help me!"

He not only gave me a rich, grace-filled hour, but also showed me a simple format for a daily hour that would draw me into deeper intimacy with Him and empower me in my Christian walk. Remember the old saying, "Inch by inch it's a cinch"? How about five minutes by five minutes it's a cinch, as shown in the "clock".

Between the five-minutes segments you might want to pray the "Our Father," or another brief prayer of your choice. For those who pray in the charismatic gift of tongues, I would encourage that form of prayer at various times throughout the hour.

It's wonderful to start the day with the Lord,praying in the early hours before work begins. Having a set time and place for prayer has positive benefits, whether it is morning, noon or night. Ideally, prayer should overflow from that formal time into spontaneous encounters with God all day long. It is marvelous when we can come into a freedom where the Lord is so real that we have "prayer conversations" with Him in the context of all our activities.

The prayers and reflections in this article are offered as suggestions to help you get started. The more you can personalize them, and allow the Holy Spirit to lead you spontaneously in your own words, the more meaningful it will be. You can expect a tremendous awakening and continual deepening of your spiritual life through this monthly/daily "Miracle Hour." A friend, Ginny, who reviewed an early draft of this article, commented: "This is going to take people through a process of breaking down barriers and loosening things up in many areas of their lives." When I showed it to another friend, Nancy, she said, "We've been praying for someone to do this!" The scriptures for additional study at the end of each section were her idea.

I encourage you to come to prayer with an attitude of openness and expectancy. Come remember all the ways God has helped you in the past, and come expecting Him to help you even more in the future. Consider the "Miracle Hour" as an intensely loving "power encounter" with your heavenly Father. It 's a time of cleansing, deeper consecration and growth in understanding of the ways of God. Come accepting and expecting His love. Come prepared to experience His goodness and mercy. Come with a yielded heart that says simply, "Lord,change me." Come to be transformed, loosened up, healed and empowered.

There is such a desperate need for people of prayer in this world of atheism and anti-Christian practices. I believe God is calling His people to pray more intensely than ever before. If we could only comprehend the immensity of God's plan for our lives, and the importance of our prayers, we would stop in our tracks and reevaluate our priorities immediately. Life is just too short and too precious to waste on empty things. As I write this I am thinking of my beloved brother-in-law, Harvell Smith (to whom I dedicated this article), who was killed in an airplane crash in the Caribbean. He had perhaps a minutes or two to get his life right with God. None of us know how many days, weeks or months we have left in this precious life. In 1984, I had a mastectomy for breast cancer, and had to face the possibility of death. It turned my life around and I made a decision not to waste another moment on empty things. Will you join me today, and make a new commitment to be a person of prayer? God will bless you for it. Get a Bible, a note pad and a pen, and find a quiet place. Join me now, in an "hour of power" that will change your life.

" Loving heavenly Father we ask for a spirit of prayer to come upon us now. Increase our longing for You, and our longing for the salvation of people around the world. I pray with the psalmist,

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Come Holy Spirit, I want to meet with God. Please teach me how to pray. In Jesus' name, Amen. "