Ephesians 6:18 “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.”
Prayer is one of the most basic practices a Christian should engage in, but I confess that I am pretty bad at it. There are many opportunities to pray for sure, but if I honestly evaluate those times of prayer, I find that I didn’t really pray. When others are leading in prayer, I’m often not following. When I’m praying in public, it’s sometimes more like an impromptu speech with my eyes closed.
It’s not much better in private. I made a prayer journal, complete with photos of people, but I barely use it. Every week, my job is to minister to youth through teaching, small groups, or music…but I usually plunge right into the work without taking time to ask God to do His work.
I tried to figure out why I’m such a weak prayer warrior. Am I just that lazy? After all, fervent prayer is seriously hard work. That is part of it; they aren’t called spiritual disciplines for nothing. But I also realized that I lack the motivation to pray because I don’t really understand how prayer “works”. I know in my mind that prayer makes a difference. But then I think, well, God is sovereign and He’s going to accomplish His will – it’s going to happen regardless of me and what I say or don’t say! So what does my prayer matter?
At the root of my prayer weakness is a lack of belief in the real power of prayer. I think I would identify that as the main problem, and now hope begin growing in this area by denying the skepticism and choosing to obey and believe.
Regardless of whether I understand of how my petitions affect God’s plans, I just need to OBEY the many commands to pray. (Matt 21:22, 1 Thess 5:17) And do so with the faith to BELIEVE that indeed the “effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much,” (James 5:16) even if I can’t make complete sense of how that works out.
Then, as I choose to be pray-er, I trust I will know and experience the purpose and power and joy of praying.
“Don’t pray when you feel like it. Have an appointment with the Lord and keep it.” – Corrie ten Boom
