When You Pray

How did you learn how to ride a bike? Did it come easily? Did you fall several times before getting the hang of it? How did you learn how to roller skate? Did you skin your knees? I know I am dating myself. Few roller skate anymore. People learn how to roller blade these days and skate board. How did you learn? Did someone teach you? How did you learn how to cook? Did you fail along the way? Did someone guide you?

Three times in Matthew 6:5-7 Jesus uttered the phrase, "When you pray." I love prayer. I love to do it. I love to teach on it. I love to preach on prayer. I also love to write about prayer. I did so again this past Sunday. Then I received a text from someone that I have not been able to shake. The text went something like this, "How do we know how to pray?" There was more to the text but the basic gist asked the question of how does a person learn how to pray?

Preachers like myself are guilty of preaching and exhorting people to pray. What we often fail to do is to teach people how to pray. We just expect they will know how to pray. Often a person can pray and say everything they can think of in five or ten minutes. They have never been actually taught.

That text got me to thinking. How did I learn how to pray? Right off the bat I confess I am still learning how to pray. Prayer is so simple and so complex at the same time. So simple a child can do it. So complex a theologian can never fully explain all the facets of prayer.

My prayer life floundered during my high school years. As a new Christian I had no concept of praying with faith. Thinking back on those days all my prayers centered around football. I prayed for wins. I prayed for strength to beat my opponent. I prayed for a football scholarship. I never prayed over ten minutes for anything. I could not think of anything else to say.

God answered my prayer for a football scholarship at Howard Payne University. Unbeknownst to me, God had other plans for me on that campus than football or to study journalism. Just two months before arriving on campus God surprised me by calling me to preach. While standing in line at registration I heard two guys behind me talking about being Bible majors. That was the first time I even heard Howard Payne offered Bible classes. I deduced since God called me to preach I needed to change my major. It happened that quickly before I met with my advisor.

Part of becoming a freshman Bible major meant getting paired with an upperclassman as a mentor. God knew what I needed. He paired me with a guy named Richard Rozier. Richard was a senior. He had a wife and children. He also served as a pastor at a small church while finishing his studies. The first time Richard and I met he used that time to get to know me. The second time he invited me to come to a prayer meeting. I did not know what to expect. We met in the prayer room located behind the Bible building. All the others present were upperclassmen like Richard.

Before we prayed those guys started prostrating themselves on the floor. I had never seen anything like that. I knelt down. Then the prayer started. Prayers offered in faith, fervently, in tears and with travails like I had never heard in my life. I got caught up in it all. Time seemed to suspend. All that mattered in those moments is we entered God's presence and prayed our hearts out.

I could not believe it when the prayer meeting ended and nearly two hours had elapsed. God hooked me that day. From that day to this I have studied prayer. I have read about prayer and read the biographies of men and women who prayed mightily. I read, studied, reread and restudied Bible passages about prayer. Most of all I prayed.

Like a new colt standing on wobbly legs for the first time, prayer took on added significance to me though I prayed on wobbly knees. God used prayer giants to fuel the flames of prayer. People like Leonard Ravenhill who used to pray eight hours a day. E.M. Bounds who rose at 4:00 a.m. to pray. John Hyde who labored tirelessly in prayer for lost souls. George Mueller taught me to pray in faith believing God for the impossible. Evan Roberts taught me about being available to pray in the night watches and to pray for revival. There have been others. All of those men are dead now. God still used them to teach me through their writings and their lives.

My bookshelves are lined with dozens of volumes on prayer. It is by far my favorite of all topics to read, study, preach, teach and write on. I feel I know so little about it.

While a student at Howard Payne God had another teacher for me. A prayer giant named Don Miller. He used to conduct prayer conferences called Bible Based Praying. I attended that conference alone at a nearby church. I sat alone with pen and paper. I took copious notes filling page after page. I sat mesmerized by Mr. MIller's teachings and real life testimonies of how God answered prayer. Night after night I eagerly attended those meetings. I still have those notes. I refer to them from time to time.

Prayer has become my life. I am reminded I did not get here alone. I did not grow in prayer just because my pastor told me I needed to pray more. God used several people to teach me. Nothing grew my prayer life like praying itself. Over the years I learned to pray. Partly by studying His word. Partly by listening to others pray. Partly by praying in the secret place. Some I learned from reading and hearing sermons on prayer. He continues to teach me the ministry of intercession. Yahweh has ushered me into private worship encounters I cannot describe. He taught me to pray Scripture and to stand on His promises. He continues to teach me to pray with perseverance. I am learning to travail in prayer. And all this is just the tip of the iceberg. These are just the things above the surface. There is vastly more to discover beneath the surface.

I am addicted. Addicted to prayer. As freshman Bible major 33 years ago God enrolled me in the school of prayer. I have been an eager student on the front row to this day. Maybe the Lord will allow me to be a Richard Rozier for someone else teaching them to pray.