I found these videos and thought they were good for a laugh but also a quick reminder that too many people are intimidated by prayer. I wrote Enjoying Prayer to help people with this!
Have you been in a group prayer time like this?
Do you feel like this when you prayer happens at your church?
What kind of prayer person are you?
I see a lot of people who say that they struggle to pray. There are various reasons but here are 2 areas that you can quickly do something about today. 1 Peter 4:7 says, “The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.” (Emphasis mine) Peter gives us two things that will help us pray.
First he encourages them to be clear minded. Many translations use the word “sober” for “clear minded”. He is not only highlighting the dangers of getting drunk but an even broader danger of disconnecting from life. I talk before about the danger of not being engaged in life. The context of this passage is that time is coming to an end so now is the time to let distractions go and focus on the important things.
Second, he challenges them to be self controlled. This could also be a challenge to be disciplined. Rather than looking at this from the negative standpoint of “I am not disciplined enough so I don’t pray” lets flip it around. We can build our prayer life by building habits. The easiest way I know to build a prayer life that is fun and enjoyable is to have a time that you are free to pray. If you did nothing else but give yourself enough margin for “prayer time” you would have a great start to building a powerful life of prayer.
Let’s be a people who are clear minded and self controlled so we can pray!
My wife and I are so cool that we chose a family theme song. The song we picked was an old Quaker song: Tis a Gift to be Simple. It is a great reminder to me when I want to make things more complicated than they need to be. Simplicity is also a great thing for a prayer life. Often when I am introducing my speaking ministry to pastors I tell them that my ministry is to speak to the person in the back row that thinks that prayer is intimidating. So with that in mind let me give you a short video I made a few years ago that we lost in “the crash” on how to start a prayer life.