Path Toward Maturity (Cont.)
- Pray fervently – Praying should be active. Struggle in prayer, wrestle with it, and let the Spirit move you (Luke 18:1-7). Answers to prayer are a blessing,
but prayer in and of itself is meant to be a blessing. - Pray specifically – Not that we can never be general, just not at the expense of praising God’s specific attributes, confessing specific sins, or thanking God and asking Him for specific things. We may pray specifically and boldly trusting God as our dear Father, while at the same time being completely submissive to God’s will.
- Pray for and with others – Prayer is meant to knit together God’s children, sometimes people we’ve never met. We share a Father; we are family; we should bear each other’s burdens in prayer. We become invested in each other’s struggles and triumphs. We start to care more about other people we pray for and less about ourselves. What a beautiful thing to come before our Father with the same appeals out of love and care for each other (Galatians 6:2“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”). Prayer binds the church together.