Learning to pray

The other morning I read a post from the devotional, 40 Days with Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  He wrote about the importance of solitude as well as community. He presented a balanced approach.

Whoever cannot be alone should beware of community. Whoever cannot stand being in community should beware of being alone.

Although this surprises some people, I like to be alone.  I spend a great deal of time alone. However, I have grown more and learned more when I am with others.

How does this relate to prayer?

 People often ask me how and why I can be positive about my prayer life especially since I am such an extrovert and avoid solitude.  When I ask other people about their prayer lives,  they often give a negative response, almost filled with shame.  This grieves me.

The main reason I am positive about my prayer life is very simple:  I pray OFTEN with people. I know that we have the examples of Moses alone in the wilderness for 40 year and coming upon the Lord in a burning bush; David out there with his sheep on the hillside; the Apostle Paul spending years in Arabia and Jesus going alone to pray all night as recorded in Luke 9. These examples bear note.  I can learn from these examples and challenge myself.

However, over the long haul, praying with people has changed my life and my prayer life.

Praying with other people seems to strengthen private prayer.  I say this from my own experience as well as what others have told me.

For more on this subject,  check out study 4 of this Lifeway Study, Praying like Jesus
http://www.lifeway.com/lwc/files/lwcf_pdf_ezell_prayinglikejesus.pdf

The author points out in Luke 9 how we see Jesus going alone to pray and then a few days later He prayed with others.  In verse 18, Jesus went alone to pray.  About a week later (Luke 9:28), he took Peter, James and John to the mountain to pray. Praying with Jesus....that would be wonderful training, beyond imagination.

So if you are serious about praying, pray with others.  I have been blessed with a prayer partner who lived across the street in Singapore.  (We still occasionally pray over the time zones via Google Hangout.)  I met for prayer with two women who lived near me for 10 years.  I started in 2001 praying on the phone every Saturday morning with a relative. This was before Skype and Google Hangout.  We advanced beyond phone technology when she moved overseas.  And I am exceptionally blessed with a husband who so readily prays with me.....every morning at 6:30 am unless one of us is traveling, and when we drive any distance at all, we often drive and pray.

You can see that the reason I can be positive about how I've developed a life of prayer is partly because of others.  I thank God for these people who have taught me to pray.  Remember, the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray.  He was right there in the flesh with them and He taught them to pray. And people are right with us in the flesh and they can teach us to pray.