Prayer is a very powerful thing and if we just believed that we would be stronger than any superhero.
I think believers (Christians) know that prayer is powerful but I don’t think we know how to pray correctly or we don’t spend the time praying correctly.
I spent some time 6 months ago working with a Mentor to go deeper in my prayer life. One of the things I learned is that prayer is a learned activity. We teach children to pray when they are young but then we stop teaching. We don’t spend much time with teens or adults teaching people how to pray unless we are talking about the Lord’s Prayer.
We will spend thousands of dollars on books, inventories, seminars, and therapists to learn how to communicate better with spouses, friends, and colleagues but we don’t take the time to learn how to communicate with God our Father and Creator. We take that relationship for granted. We want God to do all the work understanding us, He is God afterall and He knows our thoughts and desires before we even think them right? Yes, He does but that doesn’t get us off the hook.
For the parents out there, how many times have you known what your child wanted or needed but wouldn’t provide it until they came and asked for it? You wanted them to recognize the need and you wanted them to have the confidence or humility to come ask. You wanted relationship with them. God wants nothing less from us, His children.
I learned a lot in my mentoring endeavor and I am still learning as I fumble through putting what I learned into action. I have had some successes and some set backs. I truely believe in the great power of prayer because of the roadblocks I encounter. Satan doesn’t want me to get better at communicating with God. I might become a better follower of Christ if I communicate better with Him.
I noticed this when my Bible study group decided to have me teach what I have learned. Since that decision was made we have had a terrible time getting enough people together to have a study. It took longer than anticipated to finish the study we were doing before going into this prayer study and then it has been really difficult getting folks together to start this study.
Finally, we started last week and the comments that were made last night after just one week of a simple exercise I know people are changing. The excitement of being involved in this study and the eagerness of each person to learn and try out a new way to pray is exciting and I know will be beneficial not just for them but for those they know and come in contact with throughout their lives.
Yes, Satan has tried to keep us from this study. He has kept us apart. He has fed my doubts and fears in leading this group. He has blocked progress and commitments. But he has not stopped us and he will not keep us from learning, growing, engaging our Father in conversation like never before.
Go away Satan, can’t you see I’m talking to my Daddy.
1 Comment
3 October 2008 at 10:25 am
I didn’t even begin to grow spiritually until a study on prayer. The prayers from our little group affected more people than we’ll ever know. I am closer to those people than any others I know because we all went to God together regularly. He expected us to be there and we expected him to be there. I need to go there again.