An Intentional Faith by Allen JacksonSample

Prayer is important. If you’ve been in church for more than ten minutes, you’ve heard this truth. Still, each time I share about the power of prayer, people come to me confessing the deficiencies in their own prayer lives. They tell me they don’t have enough time to pray every day, or that they don’t like to pray in public because they’re introverted. They claim prayer with their small group or spouse is difficult because they aren’t eloquent enough or they don’t know all the right spiritual lingo. I get it. But prayer is too important to leave in the shadow of our excuses. So let’s learn. Let’s grow in our expressions of prayer.

We learn to speak to God, just like we learned to speak to one another. As children, we communicated with phrases only a loving parent could understand. We asked our parents for our personal needs—food, comfort, or a fresh diaper—all in the hope that they will care for us. It’s not until years into our lives that we begin to communicate more fluidly, exchanging thoughts and ideas through conversation. Learning to pray begins in much the same way as learning to talk, with simple words or phrases that express recognized needs. The pattern is not wrong, it is a necessary part of development:

God, I need help . . .

Lord, I am afraid, I do not know what to do . . .

Lord, my family . . .

God, my heart is broken . . .

These are not incomplete prayers, they are genuine expressions of invitation, and the beginning of communication. So just as we learn to speak, we learn to listen. We learn to hear God’s response, as we learned to hear our parents’ response as children.

What is true physically is true spiritually. As you push deeper into prayer, you’ll begin to see God’s answers, his work in your everyday life, and you’ll gain his perspective. After all, Jesus said, “my sheep know my voice . . . and they follow me” (John 10:27 KJV). As you grow in prayer, you’ll learn to follow his responses.