No follower of Christ in their right mind would ever say prayer is not important. We all agree it is vital to the Christian life. However, when looking at the research, it’s amazing how little people actually pray! Not that big people don’t pray and little people do. I love the English language! Let me reword – it’s amazing how infrequent and shallow people’s prayer lives are.
My life experience as a pastor has brought me to believe that the main reasons people don’t pray much has little to do with intent. They often feel inwardly embarrassed, like God will laugh at them. They feel inadequate and unqualified. Most often the response is, “I don’t really know how”. When it comes to praying in groups, shyness, comparison, fear of failure or embarrassment all weigh in to shut people down from speaking out in prayer.
Yet prayer, when cultivated in our lives, can become the most treasured part of our relationship with God. It’s the life-line, the source, and the place of access to God’s power and His will.
We spent three nights in January learning about and practicing prayer at WellSpring Community Church. It was a very encouraging time as we had record smashing attendances for prayer services. This really showed me that people want to learn to pray more effectively and make it part of their lives.
The instructional times are available in audio here. (Click the drop down list and lookup the Prayer series). The notes are available here: The Lord’s Prayer, Praying the Scripture, Praying in the Spirit. (You can right-click and save the pdf to follow along while listening.)
These three topics were covered and practiced. Maybe you can benefit from them too.
