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Stretch your prayer muscles
pastor corner

I walked into the dorm room and there he was, spread out facedown on his bed.  

At first, I wondered if my roommate was OK. Then I heard him speak. He was praying.

I watched as he continued for some 30 minutes. I had never prayed that long before in my life, but I was impressed. I vowed to begin myself.  
The next night, I took the same posture and began to pray. Quietly, I thanked the Lord for his goodness, and then I prayed for family and friends. I asked for guidance in school and for my future. I prayed for everyone and everything that came to my mind. Satisfied that I had spent sufficient time in prayer, I looked up at my alarm clock. I had been praying for three minutes.  

To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. I waited for my roommate to finish, and I started peppering him with questions. He helped me to realize that my “spiritual muscles” were much like my physical muscles. They needed to be built and trained. One does not run a marathon the first day of exercise, and one has to grow in prayer life as well.

I began to pray each night, and before long I was up to 15 minutes. And then it grew, and since then I have spent 30 minutes or more in prayer on many occasions. But I still have to stretch my “spiritual muscles” occasionally. They simply are not as strong as I wish they were.

The one thing that Jesus did more effectively than anything else was to pray. His disciples never asked him to teach them to preach or teach or even to perform miracles. But they asked him to teach them to pray. They knew that was the secret to his life.  

How often to you pray? How long do you pray? Would you like to do better? The only way to improve is to start. Take the time each day to pray. God is waiting to listen to you. He is waiting to talk to you.

You need that time. Indeed, let us pray.

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