The Prayers Of A Motley Crew

by Lance Olimb

This month we have studied prayer together. It’s an odd thing, prayer. Every time I study prayer I think, “This is so stunningly simple. What sincere, open access we have to God. It’s a relationship!” But then? Well, then I stumble miserably in actually praying the way I’d like. Stunningly simple turns into stunted starts and stops. At one point in my life I struggled with sleepy praying so I decided to pray only on my knees. You guessed it. I’d fall asleep kneeling, leaned on my forehead.

It’s hard to feel good about the way I pray. Or we pray. Maybe you’ve broken through and are just killing the prayer game. If so, keep up that monkery! For the rest of us, it is helpful to remember how Jesus teaches on prayer. Not so much the content or focus (we are hitting that on Sunday mornings) but the characters of scriptural prayer stories. Proud pharisees. Babbling gentiles. Stubborn, destitute widows. Starving, raving, midnight men. Drowsy, doubting disciples. What a motley crew!

No matter how much you struggle with prayer, you can fit right in. You might be "Slightly Bitter Betty” or "Only Sundays Oscar” and you are still welcome. Jesus is teaching people exactly like us. Those who struggle and stumble and doubt. More than that, the Father is inviting us to speak with Him. Be encouraged that you’ll never be turned away due to incompetence. Let’s take all the struggle, set it aside, and talk to our Father. It’s that simple.