The New Year’s Prayer Challenge, Part 2

By Robb Brunansky

Published January 1, 2026

The beginning of the new year is a great time to reflect upon our walk with the Lord over the past twelve months and set new goals. As such, I issued a prayer challenge to Christians last year, consisting of three parts. Those steps were to pray for one hour in one sitting each week, determine a pattern of prayer for the other six days, and find someone who could encourage us or hold us accountable in the challenge.

Those who successfully took up the challenge and faithfully met their goals each week would have spent a total of 6,250 minutes in prayer over the year. Here it becomes clear that a little commitment to prayer practiced every day, coupled with one day of a longer duration, leads to significant results over time – much more prayer taking place than if we had no plan, discipline, or structure.

This recap brings us to this new year and an encouragement to dig even deeper. We don’t want this past year to be a one-off cycle in an otherwise sickly life of prayer. Rather, we want this past year to be a launching pad to a lifetime of consistent, fervent, and effective prayer. As we think about this new year and the topic of prayer, I want to draw our attention to a particular passage in 1 Timothy (1 Timothy 4:7-8). I love this passage because the link it draws between physical and spiritual fitness.

On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. 

We understand the importance of training for anyone who wants to be a successful athlete. People who train physically understand this work entails several key components, involving consistency (even when we don’t feel like it), great effort, self-denial, and a goal. For these efforts to be meaningful and successful, we must know why we are training and make progress toward that goal.

By using the image of physical exercise and training, Paul says all things true of physical exercise are necessary in the spiritual realm as well – we must train spiritually. In our spiritual training, we need consistency. Spiritual discipline will require great effort, self-denial, and a goal. This goal was one of the greatest strengths of the first prayer challenge, that there was a real, tangible goal and observable results.

Now, Paul also gives Timothy a goal, namely, godliness.

Our spiritual workouts have a very specific goal, which is to become more like Jesus Christ, having our hearts and lives conformed to the ways and character of God. At the end of the year, the goal was not ultimately a quota of time or reading plan but becoming more like Christ. It’s important we realize this is what the challenges are about. If we want to be more like Christ, grow in holiness, walk closer with Him, and know Him more, then we must discipline ourselves and consistently aim at this goal.

Then, Paul gives Timothy some motivation for putting in the efforts. Our motivation as believers is because godliness is profitable now and forever (verse 8). Bodily disciplines are of a little profit in what matters in the whole scheme of eternity because the value is only temporary. However, the results of spiritual discipline and exercise (godliness) are profitable in all things. Godliness benefits us now as we grow in our knowledge of Christ, and the fruit of that relationship lasts throughout eternity. That truth motivated Timothy, and it should motivate us to discipline ourselves for godliness, because we know the eternal benefits of doing so.

What, then, does Paul have in mind as spiritual training? Earlier in the passage, Paul notes there are twin sanctifying tools we have at our disposal: God’s Word and prayer. If we would discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness, we must devote ourselves to these tools. It is amazing how often the New Testament commands us to devote ourselves to prayer. It’s modeled for us in Acts and commanded throughout the epistles (Romans 12:12, Colossians 4:2-3, 1 Peter 4:7, Jude 20-21). We see, too, the prayers of the saints are honored as they appear as incense before God’s throne (Revelation 5:8). So, when Paul says to Timothy, “Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness,” he undoubtedly means that Timothy will devote himself to prayer, make prayer a regular part of his life, and seek to grow in godliness by growing in prayer.

So, how can we grow in our prayer lives this year?

The theme of this new prayer challenge is simply this: dig deeper. Our challenge is to identify and grow in those areas, which can be even more difficult than just establishing a regular pattern of prayer. There are three parts to this new challenge.

First, we should improve one area where we fell short last year – one, not several areas. Maybe we did the prayer challenge but really struggled with consistency in prayer. So, we can look to be consistent. Maybe we never quite reached an hour that other day. Perhaps we return to the challenge and redo it then. Or maybe we had weak prayer partner accountability. If our relationship with our prayer partners was less than it should have been, we should work on that step. Another area might be an imbalanced use of the different prayer aspects. If we notice we neglected some biblical aspect of prayer (i.e. intercession, petition, praise, confession, etc), we can attempt to work on including that one more consistently.

Second, we should grow in one aspect of prayer. Here we are saying we will commit to growing in one of the ten areas of prayer this year. What this step means is that we grow in our understanding of that aspect of prayer, and we improve at praying in that way. For example, we become more proficient at meditating on Scripture. Or we study how people prayed for one another in the Bible. There are many possibilities, not only because there are nine aspects from which to choose, but because each one also has various layers and possibilities. So then, find one of these aspects of prayer, determine to understand it better, and become more biblical and effective in praying that way. This step doesn’t mean we abandon the other eight, but we really focus on understanding one better and seeing gains in how we pray in that area.

Third, we should commit to corporate prayer. Christians constantly have a front-row seat to see the Lord do mighty things among us. When we commit to pray together, we get the privilege of seeing God working wonders in astonishing ways. This step means, then, that we pray with the church in prayer meetings, small groups, Bible studies, and with prayer partners. Believers should commit to spend time consistently praying with God’s people this year. A great way to grow in prayer is when we hear others pray and pray with other people out loud. For some, this will just be a continuation of what we already do, it will require some self-denial, schedule or priority changes for others.

If we take up this challenge – either challenge – we will find growth in godliness at the end of the year. That will mean that this new year will have been a year that is profitable, not only for this year, but for eternity. All Christians should make this year count for something that will last. May this new year be the year we challenge ourselves, decide what we will do in prayer, commit to do it, and see the results as by grace we seek God in prayer.