Many people these days associate the use of beads in prayer as a strictly Roman Catholic practice, the Holy Rosary. The rosary is a cycle of prayers that focus on the mysteries of the faith, the Apostles’ Creed, “Our Father,” “Gloria” and “Hail Mary.”

But you don’t have to be Catholic to pray with beads. Many Orthodox Christians use a prayer rope, a wool or silk loop with 100, 50, 33 or 10 knots and beads in it. A cross usually begins and ends the loop. The prayer rope is used to keep track of the number of times a person prays the Jesus Prayer or other prayers.

READ MORE: THE JESUS PRAYER

Whether you’re Catholic, Orthodox, or decidedly unorthodox in your practices of prayer, you might find praying with a beaded or knotted strand to be helpful. Here are seven ways of praying with beads you might try:

1)  Try a book.
Use a book, such as Praying with Beads: Daily Prayers for the Christian Year by Nan Lewis Doerr and Virginia Stem Owens. It consists of a compelling and instructive introduction followed by morning, noon and evening prayers for use with a string of prayer beads. The prayers follow the Christian calendar throughout the liturgical year.

2)  Get crafty.
Pray while creating a prayer rope. If you’re a knitter or crafty type, try making prayer ropes as you pray. (One book, Bead and a Prayer: A Beginner’s Guide to Protestant Prayer Beads by Kristen E. Vincent, offers instructions for making prayer ropes).

3) Intercede for others.
Intercede for your family members and friends, one by one, as you count off the knots or beads on a prayer rope (this might be easier with a ten-knot rope, which is often small enough to be worn as a bracelet).

4) Create your own cycle.
Develop your own, tailor-made “cycle” for praying. For example, you might use the four cycles of seven in a 33- or 34-knot prayer rope to rotate through a pattern of adoration, confession, listening, thanks, petition, intercession and praise.

5) Focus on one person.
Similarly, you might use the knots or beads in a prayer rope to focus on one person (or a few). While touching each knot or bead, you might pray for their health, marriage, children, job, finances,

6) Pray the fruits of the Spirit.
Use a 10-knot prayer rope to pray the fruits of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control) for your loved ones, perhaps starting or ending with the Jesus Prayer or the Lord’s Prayer.

7) Save it for special seasons
You might not choose to use prayer beads or a prayer rope all the time; you may want to pull it out for special seasons, such as Advent or Lent or for people’s birthdays or when you want to focus your prayers on a specific need. 

Try it. Praying with beads might do something new for your prayer life. And who doesn’t need that?  

I used to think that praying every morning would require me to get out of bed earlier and devote a block of time to prayer. But one of the many things I learned on regular prayer retreats in a real, honest-to-goodness monastery was that (for me, at least) finding ways to incorporateprayer into my daily rhythms and routines was far more productive.

So, while it will probably look different for every individual, here is a suggested strategy for connecting specific prayers to your morning routine:

1)  Pray as you sit up in bed.
“O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me.”

2)  Pray as you walk (or, if you’re like me, stumble) to the bathroom.
“Praise the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.”

3)  Pray while you’re in the bathroom.
“Most merciful God, I confess that I have sinned against You in thought, word, and deed, by what I have done, and by what I have left undone. I have not loved You with my whole heart; I have not loved my neighbor as myself. I am truly sorry and I humbly repent; for the sake of Your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on me and forgive me; that I may delight in Your will and walk in Your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen.”

4)  Pray as you shower.
Sing a hymn or worship song, such as “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee,” “Morning Has Broken,” or “10,000 Reasons.”

5) Pray as you brush your teeth and comb your hair.
Say the Lord’s Prayer.

6)  Pray as you get dressed.
Pray for the coming day. “Present your requests to God” (Philippians 4:6, NIV). Give Him your worries, needs, hopes, dreams. Pray for those you care about. Thank Him for blessings you enjoy.

7) Pray as you finish getting dressed.
“Almighty Lord and God, protect me by Your power through the course of this day, even as You have enabled me to begin it. Do not let me turn aside to any sin, but let my every thought, word, and deed aim at doing what is pleasing in Your sight, through my Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.”

You may, of course, choose to alter or adapt some of the above. You may at first need to print out #1-7 and put it on your bedside table as you retire so you can refer to it each morning.

Within a very short time, however, your subconscious will associate each of those activities with those prayers or hymns, making your prayer and worship intrinsic to your morning routine. Eventually, you’ll wonder how you ever made it through the day any other way.

A clear conscience before God and others. Improved sleep habits. A better sense of your strengths and weaknesses. A growing intimacy with God. Stronger self-control. Increasing likeness to Jesus Christ. These are just some of the benefits that come from learning to confess our sins in prayer and doing it regularly.

These days, however, confession is seldom talked about and even less frequently practiced, even by the most experienced and mature followers of Jesus. But it is still possible to learn how to confess well, particularly by following the example of King David.

Psalm 51 in the Bible has long been identified with David and his devastating sin with Bathsheba and the exposure of that sin by the prophet Nathan. It certainly tracks well with the biblical account of that episode (see 2 Samuel 11-12). It also provides seven keys to remember in confessing our own sins:

1)   Remember God’s nature.
David began his psalm, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions” (Psalm 51:1, NIV). The basis of our confession is God’s unfailing love and willingness to forgive. Nothing else. Not our past “righteousness” or imagined worthiness. Not any mitigating circumstances. Only God’s nature.

Read More: 4 Ways to Pray Yourself Clean

2)  Call it what it is.
David prayed, “Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me” (Psalm 51:2-3, NIV). He called sin “sin.” He didn’t whitewash it or excuse it. He didn’t refer to it as a “mistake.” It gets us nowhere to use “weasel words” in confessing.  

3)  Take full responsibility.
David used the word “my” five times in the first three verses of Psalm 51: “my transgressions,” “my iniquity,” “my sin,” “my transgressions,” and “my sin” (Psalm 51:1-3, NIV). Sure, he’s repeating himself. But he’s blaming no one but himself, which is key to a good and thorough confession.

4)  Get specific.
David went on to pray, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge” (Psalm 51:4, NIV). If the background of Psalm 51 is David’s sin with Bathsheba, then I can think of at least three people he sinned against, in addition to God (Uriah, Bathsheba, and the child of David and Bathsheba, who died in infancy). But all sin is first and foremost against God, so perhaps David’s focus is correct if not comprehensive (like the prodigal son in Jesus’ story, who said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you” (Luke 15:21, NIV).

5)  Claim God’s forgiveness.
After confessing his sin, David makes a catalog of requests:

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;

    wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness;

    let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins

    and blot out all my iniquity.

Create in me a pure heart, O God,

    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me from your presence

    or take your Holy Spirit from me (Psalm 51:7-11, NIV).

Interestingly, the New Testament writer of 1 John promised, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9, NIV). He drew a straight line from confession to forgiveness and cleansing. He didn’t say we need to plead or beg or cajole; we simply confess and God freely forgives.

6)  Renew your commitment.
David seems to be on a roll in his penitential psalm. He goes on to make further requests of God: “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me” (Psalm 51:12, NIV). Once we have confessed our sins and laid hold of God’s free and full forgiveness, it is only appropriate to renew our commitment to Him and seek the joy of His presence.

7)  Move on to other prayers.
Finally, David seems to move beyond confession to praise and petition in his psalm. He declares his intention to “teach transgressors your ways” (v. 13). He asks God to open his lips in praise (v. 15). He asks God to prosper Zion and “build up the walls of Jerusalem” (v. 18). Similarly, when we have confessed well, we will find that praise and petition flows from our lips more naturally and abundantly than before, as the overflow of a clean heart and a renewed spirit.

I shared in a previous post the results of a question I posed to my friends on Facebook: What has been the biggest breakthrough or most helpful “tip” you’ve ever received or experienced in energizing your prayer life? The results were gratifying…and inspiring.

So many people responded that I couldn’t fit them all into one post. So here are seven more prayer tips culled from the experiences of my friends:

1)  Start by listening.
Lora, who lives in Pennsylvania, says she has learned “to not pray for what I think a person needs, but to wait on God until I hear how He wants me to pray. When people ask me to pray, I only want to hear about the situation…just the facts. Then I’ll take it to God and find out what He is speaking into the situation and pray according to His desires, not anyone else’s.”

2)  When words won’t come, you can groan or sob.
Michigan resident Gloria says, “There have been times when all I could do was moan to Him. Words wouldn’t come, only the groaning of my spirit.”

Linda from Pennsylvania describes a similar practice: “One family I’m praying for in particular, where the husband/father has an aggressive brain tumor. The wife/mom updates us through her blog posts. Whenever I start praying for them, there are no words—just these gut-wrenching sobs that I can’t stop or control. For a while I would try to ‘start over’ to do it right, till I realized the Spirit knows what I’m praying for—and that those sobs are probably the most intimate, heartfelt prayers I offer up.”

3)  Pray about every little thing.
Amy from New York says, “When my children were younger and had a problem or concern, I would always ask if they had prayed about it! I tried to teach them that they can talk to God just like they talk to their friends or mom and dad. Just, ‘God, please help me with my math test today!’ or ‘Connie is in the hospital and I’m scared for her, please help her get better!’ My 16-year-old now says she prays her way through school sometimes (if she is sad or someone is not being kind or if a teacher is out sick) so I guess it worked!”

4)  Pray breath prayers.
Ohio resident Donna says she prays a single, short prayer throughout the day: “Lead, guide and direct me.”

5)  Pray tactically.
Maureen from New York says, “I learned from my husband, whose Mom taught him: When struggling with an area of temptation, pick a missionary and pray for them. Every time the temptation comes to mind, immediately start praying for the missionary you picked. Satan doesn’t like prayer, so he often lets up on the temptation.”

6)  Say “thank you.” A lot.
Samantha, who lives near Birmingham, England, says she has learned to “say thank you—no matter what the circumstance because without God it would be a hundred times worse, and He has a plan. He might be teaching you something, so even when you’re not happy with Him and circumstances, say ‘thank you.’”

7) Pray all day.
Coralee from Ohio says, “I try to pray all during the day. God seems to just bring people and situations to mind.”

And Cindy from New York says prayer has “become a part of my very being! Some days I feel that I am in constant prayer. I can focus during the chaos and in the stillness because it is an ongoing dialog. A friend taught me years ago that I don’t need to summon God; He’s with me constantly, and He’s always listening.”