Lord, Teach Me to Pray

My prayer life—to put it lightly—is fairly dismal sometimes. I've always seen prayer as some ambiguous religious ritual that was required of me, by God, so I could "hear from him." As a child, I found myself constantly confused that I never "heard God's voice" and when I told my mother that I did not think you could hear God, she would always seem concerned about my lack of supplicatory understanding. Surely, I was missing something.

Yet even then, no one could really explain to me what the model prayer life looked like. I heard the following quote and could immediately relate. Maybe you will feel the same way.

"When it comes to prayer...we all struggle in different ways. Years ago, I sat down to think through some of my frustrations with prayer and perhaps some of these will describe you. I've said things like:

• I wrestle with prayer
• I struggle with prayer
• My prayer life is weak
• All my prayers sound the same
• I know I should pray more
• I don't know how to pray
• I fall asleep when I pray (How many of us can say, 'yes, I fall asleep when I pray!')
• Prayer is boring
• I tried, but I just can't pray
• I used to pray, but it didn't work

I doubt anyone of us in this room would stand up today and say, 'I have the model prayer life and I  can tell you exactly how to do it—the perfect way—because I never have any of those experiences or feelings. And my prayer life is textbook.'"

This is from a sermon by Michael Easely of Fellowship Baptist Church, and I highly recommend you take the time hear his message (click the link below). This talk radically changed how I thought about prayer; it was truly a beautiful message. 

Michael Easely Message on Luke 11:5-13