Recently God has been speaking into my life about the power of prayer and the need for a “brushing up” of my own prayer life.

I’ve been confessing and embracing some new disciplines regarding prayer. One of those disciplines is talking with people who have been followers of Jesus for a long time and have developed a vibrant prayer life.

Yesterday I had lunch with four people, all over 70, who have served God in various capacities ranging from a missionary to Africa to an administrator at a university. I asked them to talk to me about their prayer lives and what has worked for them.

As I listened I realized something, though they all have their own unique methods, there are two things that they all have in common, two things that are critical to a healthy prayer life:

1. A set time
2. A regular place

One of the ladies in this group kept saying, “You just have to do it.” That’s it! You have a time cut out and a place reserved and you go there and pray, and you do it consistently.

No secrets. No complex formulas. Just simply doing it every day at a set time in a set place.

I walked away from that conversation with another confirmation to a theory I’m developing… there are no secrets to a happy and good life; a good life is not the result of complexity. No. A good life is the result of simple things done consistently.

Thanks to my aging friends who shared their wisdom with me yesterday.