"Growing In Prayer"

On five occasions in the New Testament we are told to constantly live in prayer.  Three times we are told this specifically (Luke 18:1; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; Ephesians 6:18) and twice we are implicitly called to constant prayer (Romans 12:12; Colossians 4:2).  Lets put all of these together in the order given: “Men ought always to pray and not to lose heart;” “Pray without ceasing;” “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit;” “Continuing steadfastly in prayer;” “Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.”  It should be no surprise that those who know God well learn more and more to depend on prayer as they continue on in the Christian life.  There are a number of practical reasons why we learn to depend more on prayer the longer we live.

1)      We learn by our own failures that we need God’s help in everything in life.  We learn not to trust in our own self-sufficiency.  “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5).

2)      We learn more and more how futile it is to worry.  Instead we find the peace of God comes when we cast all our cares upon Him (Isaiah 26:3).

3)      It settles into our hearts more deeply as time goes on that we cannot change others’ hearts, but God can in answer to prayer.

4)      We learn after many periods of dryness and barrenness that the only way to stay near to God throughout the day is to stay in prayer.  As Jesus says in Luke 18:1, we are either praying or losing heart.

5)      Progressively we grow in this conviction also: we cannot just read the Word of God; we must turn what we read into prayer to God or it will just be head knowledge that puffs us up with pride.  Turning the words of Scripture into prayer is the way to nourish our souls, for “man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). 

6)      As we grow in grace we learn that we cannot just think about God, we must have a  running conversation with Him throughout the day.  This is the way to truly seek God and know Him as our closest Friend, our Father, our Savior, and our Heavenly Bridegroom.

This is the way believers learn to grow in prayer, but to start in prayer we must come to the cross and believe that Jesus died there for sinners like me and that he will forgive all those who come to Him in repentance and faith.  One of the prayers that the Lord Jesus heard in the temple one day that He delighted in was that of the tax-collector.  “The tax-collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, “God be merciful to me a sinner.””  Jesus then said, “I tell you this man went down to his house justified” (that is, forgiven; see Luke 18:13-14).  This is the beginning of a life of prayer that we all need.  Then God will teach us more and more to grow in dependence on Him through prayer..