Saturday, September 26, 2009
Who Taught you to Pray?
How did you learn to pray? Did you pick it up by listening to others around you (which would be OK if they know what they are doing) or did you pick up it by osmosis? Do you ask God for your material or do you come up with it on your own? Have you ever be formally mentored in prayer? If not, would you be interested in that?
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Good question! I was taught by my parents to kneel at my bedside and pray every night ... my basis for talking to God. The words were rote "Now I lay me down to sleep ..." but the "God blesses" were real petition.
ReplyDeleteI "amened" with the prayers in my grandparents' church. And listened and agreed with my grandma when she prayed at our meals. I knew she knew Jesus and knew how to talk to him.
As a teenager and young adult, I am afraid, it was "Help!" more often than anything. And, "if You ... I will..." Sorry, but true.
Later, I watched Christian TV and listened to how they all prayed. I especially paid attention to Dale Evans and Roy Rogers, my childhood heroes. I read their books and every book on prayer I could find. In my bible, I read how Jesus prayed and Moses, and David. I began praying with Prayers that Avail Much, which prayed according to Scriptures.
Early on though, I actually quit a women's study at church, because they took turns praying out loud and I was too "scared." I also had thought that my prayer was a "private" thing between me and God. How wrong I was!
God showed me otherwise in a way I never would have expected. I took into my home a young Christian mom for awhile. She innocently put me on the spot, at a horse show. She asked me to pray for her sick horse ... here? now? I asked God to help and just jumped into it, the need was so urgent. He healed the horse. I was on my way. The more time I spent with God and in His Word, the more natural prayer became.
I was always asking my Pastor to pray for this or that person. He eventually asked me to head up the prayer chain. Deep water there ... I learned SO much from my senior prayer partners about praying. We prayed together with and for each other and all the needs brought to us. The Lord was SO Faithful to answer, as He always is.
There are many times when I have no words, I just ask the Holy Spirit to pray what ought to be prayed and guess what? He comes through every time. :)
Later I had the chance to work with our youth group and help teach them to pray. We used the acronym(?) ACTS Adoration, Thanksgiving, Confession, and Supplication.
What a blessing and privilege prayer is! Thank you for asking! I am anxious to hear what others have to say and what type of mentoring you have in mind.
WOW! Thank you, thank you, thank you. What a really cool journey of prayer. I am anxious to hear what others have to say too.
ReplyDeleteI learned prayer from going to a conservative church, "proper praying." I didn't actually learn to pray until about 10 years ago, a guy mentored me in prayer. I read several books he gave me and it transformed how I pray.
When I don't know what to pray for, I ask God for the words and He comes through every time if I am patient enough to listen. I try to pray our loud if possible and learned how to pray with power and conviction.
Others of you...feel free to share your story of prayer.