In my first installment in this series the focus was squarely on the importance of prioritizing daily time in God’s word. Following the positing of that article a good friend reached out to me looking for resources to help him in his effort to read and understand God’s word more clearly. I can tell you, those are the types of questions that pastors love to answer! There are a lot of helpful resources out there and the one that has served me well of late has been a hybrid of the inductive bible study method. I love the way the inductive method encourages the reader to interact with the passage while emphasizing the importance of context. There are a lot of good resources online related to the inductive method and here is a great article to help you get started: https://www.crossway.org/articles/10-tips-for-getting-started-with-inductive-bible-study/.
In this second installment, I want to encourage you in the area of your prayer life. Prayer is one of those topics that Christians often talk about but often secretly carry hidden guilt and shame because they know they do not pray enough. Believe me, we’ve all been there. Friends, I want you to know that there is a better way. To quote Martin Luther: “To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” I would add that prayer in a sense is the very breath of our Christian lives. If this is true then there are times when our spiritual lives are languishing due to lack of “oxygen”! Prayer is a key way we express our dependence on God. We often only recognize this when we are facing trials. Difficult times often drive us to God in prayer and this is good but it is far better when we recognize how desperately we need God all the time. Step one in becoming more consistent in prayer is to repent of the sin of self-sufficiency. The world may idolize those who seem to have it all together but the strength of the church is found in those who understand that apart from Christ they can do nothing of eternal consequence (John 15:5). This leads us to depend fully on Christ each day and dependence leads us to prayer.
Prayer is an act of dependence and it is also a discipline. Like our daily bible reading, we must prioritize prayer as a key component of our devotional lives. This should not be the only time we pray during the day but it should play a key role in our devotions. Try beginning your devotional time by giving thanks to God for His goodness and asking for the Holy Spirit’s help in understanding as you read the Word. Follow your Bible reading with a time of praying about what you’ve read and then also praying for others. Create a prayer list where you pray for different people each day. Some people like to keep a journal where they write down different items to pray about so they can later record how God answered those prayers. Our daily devotional time should include a time of focused prayer. The more we pray the deeper our intimacy with God becomes.
Prayer is an act of dependence, it is a discipline, and prayer is something we do with others. God’s people should pray together, at church, in our homes, even at work, as we take the time to lovingly bear one another’s burdens, rejoice together, and seek God. For some, it can be intimidating to pray in groups but remember, those with whom we pray are not the audience, it is the One to whom we pray!
Prayer is an aspect of our faith and worship that changes us. As E.M. Bounds reminds us, prayer is also a privilege: “Prayer should not be regarded as a duty which must be performed, but rather as a privilege to be enjoyed, a rare delight that is always revealing some new beauty.” As you bow your head in prayer today, remember you are speaking to the God who created the universe, the God who is sovereign over all, and the God who saved you. He is not impersonal or far off, He is near to His children and He delights in our prayers!
