From Ben – 6 August 2017

Last Sunday, 30th July, I preached on the subject of prayer. It is true to say that we all struggle with this part of our Christian lives. There is none of us who can say we pray enough or we pray in the right way or that we always feel like praying. None of us has prayer all sown up. Having said that I do believe that there are things we can do to help us pray regularly and pray better.

Effective prayer starts with the strong recognition that we now have an open door to heaven through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. What is more, God welcomes and hears the faithful prayer of His people. However, the reality is we know this, yet we fail to pray as we should, and when we know we should.

I have found that having a time and place to pray is a great help. I am committed to this time and place when I feel like praying or not. I have also found having a prayer list of people’s names and needs helps me to remember the needs of others and to pray wider than just my family and friends. A great help to my personal prayer life is the church phone book, which lists all the names of our people and their children. I pray a page a day, covering the church in about a month. Another help is a world map that show where Christians are most persecuted; although I will never go to these places or meet these people I am able to go there in prayer.

I suppose what I am saying is that prayer is most effective if we set a time, a place and a list and pray, not only when we feel like it, but when we should.

Similar Posts