Prayer Part 1

I have realized over the break that i know close to nothing about prayer! So I have dedicated a good part of the break to seeking Jesus’ heart and example in this most sacred of disciplines. In the words of Andrew Murray, I have enrolled myself in the school of prayer as an ignorant student who knows very little on how to follow the example of Christ. Up till now tradition has guided most of my schooling. By this I mean I have learned by the way of mimicking the prayers of more mature believers in church settings, as they most likely followed the generations before them. Is this mimicking beneficial? Of course! Through the Spirit, I have learned from the prayers of others that follow the heart of Christ, yet I have also learned the pattern Christ warned against, “do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues…to be seen by men,” and after the empty words of those, “babbling like pagans.” It is the latter examples that worry me and my consistent prayer of these empty words have exposed my lack of understanding. Do I pray empty words? Do I have faith prayer works? Do I know Jesus’ heart behind prayer? Does prayer change the mind of God? My lack of personal study and Spirit led interest has kept me from feasting on solid food, has kept me from graduating from the elementary levels! As Murray says, “As long as we look on prayer chiefly as the means of maintaining our Christian life, we shall not know fully what it is meant to be!...The highest part of the work entrusted to us, the root and strength of all other works.” The delight of prayer is the flavor and aroma of the lives of the saints before us. Martin Luther said if he did not begin his day with two hours of prayer, he considered much of the day lost to the devil. Prayer in Jesus’ life was as regular as his heartbeat, always slipping away and awakening early to talk to the Father.

So I have been reading books, listening to sermons from men such as Piper, Chandler, and Driscoll, studying the word and whatever else I can find to try and understand prayer and ultimately to learn to pray, that my joy may be increased as God is glorified. There’s my intro…and actually as I read over it again, it seems quite serious like I haven’t talked to anyone or laughed in a few days! HaHa! That’s funny! Anyways, I plan on trying to write a little of what I have learned every few days in hopes that it will move whoever reads this to enroll in the school of prayer where Christ is the perfect teacher, ready and willing to instruct all who come to learn. So be encouraged and check everything I say with the Bible, because as I said, I am mere infant in this school.

Lord, the way of prayer is simple enough for a child to cry Abba, yet its deepest mysteries unfathomable to the eldest saint. I plead the highest ignorance to the means by which I could ask for anything at the feet of the consuming fire. Lord, teach us to pray! Is my cry, my heartbeat. You are a great teacher and so I have faith. Teach us Lord the most perfect way that we may enter into the beauty of prayer and thus have power to do your work on earth. Enroll us in the school of prayer! Amen.