Wednesday Evening Series: Prayer

I spent the day today studying for my latest series on prayer, which starts tomorrow and will continue for some time on Wednesday nights. In some ways, this is the teaching series I have been waiting for all my life. I have always wanted to do a topical series on prayer, but there has always been one glaring problem: I was not ready for it. You see, I have always found my own prayer life to be entirely deficient. How then could I teach others on this topic when I myself have failed so many times?

Bible study has always come “easy” for me. I love to dig into God’s Word and uncover the hidden treasures and ancient gems in the sacred text. I have read the Bible every single day for almost the entire 20 years that I have been a Christian. Scripture memory, too, comes relatively easy for me. Because I have a photographic memory, I can remember exactly where certain words and lines of Scripture fall on the page.

But prayer has always been hard for me. Very hard. I have fought against this challenge for most of my Christian walk. I earnestly resist falling into the sin of prayerlessness mentioned in 1 Samuel 12:22.  I have continually devised new ways to keep my prayer life fresh and full of life. I have kept prayer journals, posted note cards, and read a thousand prayer emails. I have prayed in my study, near my bed, and in my car. But prayer still does not come easy for me.

Nevertheless, I have finally decided that I MUST teach this lesson series on prayer. Not because I am ready, but because as a Church, we are corporately ready. You see, prayer is the absolute life-line between the Christian and God. Between the Church and God. I simply cannot afford to delay a major teaching series on this topic any longer if the Church is going to grow both in depth and width. Because prayer is both powerful and effective (James 5:16), I am convinced that the Church would lose all of its vitality if her people would not come to God our Heavenly Father hopefully expecting Him to move in our midst.

I know I am not ready to teach this series. My prayers need bolstering. But in a way, I never will be ready. Nevertheless, the book of Hebrews tells us to approach the throne in prayer boldly (10:19-20). My confidence then, is not in my own ability to pray or to teach others to pray, but in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ who bids us to come to Him and meet Him at the throne.
And come, we must.