on prayer

Hi all,

For those who couldn't make it for SR last friday night, we had a guest speaker from AIM to speak to us on the topic of prayer.
He likened prayer to picking up our mobile phone to call God. Just like we use our mobiles to contact people, prayer is our vital contact point and means of communication with God! It is our LIFELINE!
Jesus commanded us to pray, Jesus spent much time in prayer Himself (we may think... Jesus was God, why did he even have to pray?!!! Yet, it shows how important prayer is, and set an example for us to follow...), He also taught his disciples to pray, and in the new testament, Paul and other writers exhorts us to be persistant and continual in prayer! So the question of 'Should we pray?' is therefore obvious... Now, the next question is, 'So, how should we pray then?' This is harder to answer. There is no formula to prayer, though Jesus did give us a simple prayer formula (in Luke 11:2-4), He goes beyond that (if you read Luke 11), and teaches us about the principles of prayer. To learn to pray, i believe, we first need to learn the person whom we pray to. If we do not know our God and Father in heaven, it goes without saying that it will seem difficult to pray (and many times not knowing what to say...) Just like a conversation between 2 people who don't know each other, it would first start off superficially. But as they talk and get to know each other better, their conversations would get deeper and more personal. It is the same with our relationship with our Father in heaven. That's why reading God's word and prayer goes hand in hand. It is both by knowing God through His word, and prayer that we know Him better, and thus learn how to pray! (i hope i'm not talking in circles, but it IS really a circle! If we know God, we learn how to pray and by praying, we know God more!)

Edmund Chan, a singaporean pastor, said "There is no better way to learn about prayer than to pray. Prayer is not merely what we say to God but what the Holy Spirit inspires in our hearts to life up before the throne of God. That is why I often begin my prayers wirh, 'Lord, lay upon my heart the things that are upon yours'." I found this really simple, yet profound. Just like we can't learn to ride a bike unless we first ride it, we can't learn to pray unless we pray! Simple as it sounds...

I'm definitely not there in terms of prayer, and i've got lots more to learn. But just wanna encourage us to make a conscious effort to speak to God through the day as we go about our daily activities, as well as to set aside period of time in the day to quieten our heart to pray.

Learning with you all,
Pam :)