We cannot imagine the Christian life without asking Jesus himself to teach us to pray (Luke 11:1b), for we all need to learn how to pray. No one is an expert. Indeed, Paul himself in Romans said he had forgotten how to pray (8:26). And I have a feeling that there are times in our own lives when we do not know how to pray either. There are times when we come to prayer without knowing what to say, or even what our deepest needs are; we sometimes don’t even know what we are doing (Romans 8:26a).
It is a reason why we are humbled in prayer, for we know that we cannot have access to God apart from God’s own gracious self-giving. We cannot fully pray unless we realize that the Spirit is also praying for us (Romans 8:26b).
There is humility in knowing this: we are not the ones who control the outcome of God’s ways. God is not at our beck and call as some kind of cosmic bell-hop. If this is our image of God, then prayer has ceased to be prayer. It has become more about our presumption than our humility.
Hence, the challenge and the invitation to pray: to ask, how am I going to grow in prayer? What do I need to be doing to cultivate prayer in my life? What will help me to mature? What practices do I need to develop? From morning devotion to table blessing, from meditation to praying for others, from silent-listening to the Lord’s prayer itself: there is no one way to pray, but there is the way Jesus himself taught us to pray; that is, there is the way that Christ himself provides for us the example of prayer, reminding us that he is with us always (Matthew 28:20).
What first steps do we need to take in prayer? How may we do so to become spiritually fit?
Pastor Andy Kinsey
It is a reason why we are humbled in prayer, for we know that we cannot have access to God apart from God’s own gracious self-giving. We cannot fully pray unless we realize that the Spirit is also praying for us (Romans 8:26b).
There is humility in knowing this: we are not the ones who control the outcome of God’s ways. God is not at our beck and call as some kind of cosmic bell-hop. If this is our image of God, then prayer has ceased to be prayer. It has become more about our presumption than our humility.
Hence, the challenge and the invitation to pray: to ask, how am I going to grow in prayer? What do I need to be doing to cultivate prayer in my life? What will help me to mature? What practices do I need to develop? From morning devotion to table blessing, from meditation to praying for others, from silent-listening to the Lord’s prayer itself: there is no one way to pray, but there is the way Jesus himself taught us to pray; that is, there is the way that Christ himself provides for us the example of prayer, reminding us that he is with us always (Matthew 28:20).
What first steps do we need to take in prayer? How may we do so to become spiritually fit?
Pastor Andy Kinsey
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