The simplicity of prayer makes it doable for everyone. But simple doesn’t mean superficial. God has given us his Spirit to help us go deeper as pray-ers without losing the simplicity of the prayer relationship.
Union with God’s nature (2 Peter 1:4) removes our spiritual growth ceiling. But the growth adventure happens from the core. Prayer life sets the pace for our journey of growing in God’s fullness.
God hasn’t made us for ground-level sameness; our spirit is restless for more. Yes, disappointments might clip our wings. Sometimes busyness can cage our prayer lives. But if a flat prayer life has become the norm, then we’re missing out on the enjoyable growth-journey the Lord planned for us at the centre of our relationship with him.
Talk of upgrading is common today. Yet, in the church, we seldom hear a call to upgrade the area that is central to life in God’s kingdom and has the greatest shaping impact on our living: PRAYER. We rarely hear of people sharing their plans to go deeper as pray-ers. We assume prayer growth will simply happen, but it doesn’t.
Prayer life doesn’t have an auto-upgrade feature; it grows because we take steps. Christ’s early disciples knew that when they asked Jesus, Lord, teach us to pray (Luke 11:1). They saw and heard Jesus experiencing prayer at levels beyond their own, and they wanted to go there; they wanted to go deeper in prayer life.
Most of us will admit that we want a better prayer life. For some, that means going from good to great; for others, it simply means taking the first step in prayer growth. But whether we feel we’re in the basement, on an upper floor, or stuck on a mezzanine, the Spirit is ready to help us move on from where we are.
To go deeper in prayer, we must want to; our hearts must sign on to the journey. The will to take steps is more resilient when coupled with the heart’s desire. The best way to nurture both the desire and the will to grow as a pray-er is to keep the go-deeper conversation with the Lord alive.
- Read Luke 11:1 and make the disciples’ request your own: Lord, teach ME to pray. Speak it, or sing it as a prayer of hunger/desire. Tell him of your longing to move on, and of your readiness to take steps that will grow you as a pray-er.
- Make Luke 11:1 a ‘breath prayer’ – repeat it throughout the day, blend it into your activities.
- If you want to move on in prayer life, but are aware of an inner struggle, habit or distraction that hinders you from taking steps, have an honest conversation with the Lord about it. He wants this journey for you and will show you what to do about the hindrances. Psalm 32:8 is an encouraging passage to soak in.
- Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you more about prayer as you read scripture, to train you (help you put it into practice), and to protect your heart’s desire to go deeper in prayer life.
Note: I’ll share more (an expanded version of Go Deeper) in the Prayer Life Wingspan YouTube channel soon. Asking God to help us go deeper in prayer life is good, but probably not the best starting point. I’ll touch on that in the video. Will post the link when it’s uploaded.
