If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. – 2 Chronicles 7:14

I thought this would be an easy 4-part series to write for WMD. I have some thoughts on seeking God’s face, but I’m still stuck on the first two in my own personal life. I know the disciples of Jesus said their prayers every day. But when they saw Jesus go off by Himself to pray, when He came back, all they knew was that they wanted to learn how to do it the way He was doing it. “Teach us to pray,” they said (Luke 11).

About 25 years ago, I started a prayer journal for the first time. Nearly the entire thing is prayers for me and my . . . my job, my family, my church. There might be a scattered prayer in there for someone else. There is one last blank page in that notebook. I can’t wait for the Lord to prompt me to write that one last entry. In the meantime, I’ve started a new notebook. It is all for other people. I just wrote my 49th prayer for someone. I am only in there for one number, number 22 simply says, “Lord, teach me how to pray . . . like really pray.”

Before this past month, if you had asked me, “Adam, do you pray?” I would have said, “yes.” Yet I bet I’ve prayed more this last week than any full month before that. I say this to my shame, not my exaltation. I want to get to where I think of prayer like William Walford, he called it a “Sweet Hour of Prayer.” If we lined up a hundred random Americans who called themselves Christians, how many could honestly claim that they’ve ever prayed for an hour? I know people have their own ways of praying and people do what works for them. I’m sure people have wonderful prayer lives. I just don’t feel like I do. I also think we’d be embarrassed if we compared the average prayer life today with the average prayer life 180 years ago when “Sweet Hour of Prayer” was written. America has to be the hardest place on the planet to develop a prayer life because we gravitate towards consumerism, individualism, culturalism, materialism, and probably a lot more isms that I can’t think of right now. How do we really get away from it?

The world behind me

The cross before me

No turning back

No turning back

Lord, it is so easy to say that I’ve humbled myself. It is so easy to say that I pray. It is so easy to say that I follow You. You are going to come back for a pure and spotless church bride. Prepare me for that day. Will you help me? I know it is a lifelong sanctification process that involves trusting You until the day I draw my last breath. Help me keep moving forward, Lord. One day soon, allow me to look forward to my “sweet hour of prayer.” Amen