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I’m quite certain that you know how important it is for Christ-followers to pray and yet not too many of us make it a priority in our lives. Why not?
Well, for one reason, we don’t plan to pray. It’s not on our to-do list; it’s not part of our daily schedule. I can promise you that Satan will do everything he can to keep you from praying because your power comes through prayer. So, if you don’t intentionally plan to pray, you probably won’t pray very much. Do you have a certain time set aside to pray each day?
Another reason you may not pray like you should is because you don’t really believe it makes any difference. You know God is sovereign, so how do your prayers change anything? And besides, maybe you’ve had many prayers that weren’t answered according to your timetable or the way you wanted them answered. So, you may have lost faith in prayer. But can you remember that Jesus prayed while on earth—a lot! He knew that prayer was important in his life, so how can we question our need to pray.
But in my opinion, one of the main reasons Christians don’t make prayer a priority in their lives is because they’ve never learned how to pray. The disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. Have you ever asked God for the same thing? Have you ever looked at prayers in the Bible and patterned your prayers after them. Have you ever taken The Lord’s Prayer—more accurately called The Disciple’s Prayer—and used that as your format for praying?
Years ago I did that and it revolutionized my prayer life. In fact, I produced a journal similar to the one I use, and you can get one for yourself. It’s available on our website, and perhaps it might help you learn to pray more effectively.
I hope you will get serious—if you haven’t already—about becoming proficient in prayer—learning to pray more effectively. You will never regret it.