Examples From the New Testament
Jesus regularly spent hours in prayer. Sometimes, he prayed all night and went right to work the next morning.
Paul, the apostle, prayed without ceasing. He prayed always with all kinds of prayers and commanded us to do the same and pray without ceasing.
Examples From Christian Leaders of the past
Martin Luther prayed at least two hours per day. He once said, “If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer.” Martin Luther is the great reformer who led the protestant reformation.
John Wesley prayed two hours per day. He was a mighty man of God and the founder of the Methodist church.
George Whitefield prayed at least three hours per day (1hr in the morning, 1hr at noon, and 1hr in the evening). He was a great evangelist in England and America.
E. M. Bounds prayed for three hours daily. He was a Pastor around the time of the American Civil War. He prayed daily for three hours before he would begin work on his writings. He wrote some of the most powerful books on prayer that exist.
John Welch was one of the most faithful men of prayer this world has ever known. He spent at least seven or eight hours daily alone with God in prayer and the study of His Word. An old man speaking of him after his death said, “He was a type of Christ.”
Examples From Christian Leaders today
David Yonggi Cho, the pastor of the largest church in the world (with close to a million members) prayed four or five hours per day for many years. When he got older and his knees were painful, he reduced it to three hours per day.
Pastor John Piper, speaking at the ordination of Glen Bloomstrom said, “To be very specific, Glen, so that you will remember it, almost no minister of the gospel will be a spiritually fruitful person if he is spending less than two hours a day in prayer and meditation in addition to his sermon preparation. Holy, powerful, life-changing spiritual men of God are not made on the run. There are so few people who believe that, Glen, that the expectations laid on you in the service will probably be a constant threat to your spiritual power and fruitfulness. But Christ has appointed you to go and bear fruit. So resist those expectations with boldness.”
How long should you pray?
Pray as many hours a day as you possibly can. You can never spend too much time in prayer. There is no such thing as praying too much. There is only praying too little. Because prayer can do all the things that God can do.
But I advise you to start little, maybe with 15 minutes/day and then shoot for consistency for at least three weeks or 21 days. Then after that, incrementally increase it until you can’t increase it any more.
Caution
A person is not more righteous or more spiritual because they spend more time in prayer. It’s a relationship. What you do during that time is more important. The time cited for prayer usually includes reading and meditating on God’s word, listening to God, worshiping God, and prayer. Many people do these things intermittently. They also intercede for the nations and for souls and bring all kinds of petitions before God.