If you were to ask me, “What is one of the hindrances to prayer?” I would say that people do not plan to pray. One does not just drift into spiritual life; one does not drift into disciplined prayer life. While seminars on prayer and reading books on prayer are good, the way we learn to pray is prayer. That means you must establish a time or times during the day when you do nothing but pray. We know that what we give our time to reveals our priorities. We can declare our commitment to prayer, but unless we actually pray, our actions disprove our words.

In the New Testament Paul speaks of his prayers for fellow believers. These passages (Romans 1:10; Eph. 1:16ff; 3:14ff; Col. 1:9ff; I Thess. 1: 2) teach us two things: that Paul had specific times for prayer, as did our Lord Jesus (Luke 5: 16), and that there were specific things he prayed for. I want to encourage you to set specific times aside for prayer and let the things that Paul prayed for be a pattern for your prayers.

Pastor Braden