I was sitting on my back patio, reading my assigned reading in A Praying Life, when my six-year-old son came up and he asked me what I was reading. I told him, “I’m reading this book that teaches you how to pray.” He said, “But, Daddy, you already know how to pray.”
I sat there quietly because he was absolutely right. I do know how to pray. But his question made me consider, well, if I know how to pray, then why don’t I? That moment captures some of what I wound up working and praying through in the A Praying Life cohort: apathy, perfectionism, and cynicism.
But his question made me consider, well, if I know how to pray, then why don’t I?
In the cohort, you make these prayer cards and start with reading and praying through them for five minutes a day. And that was really convicting because while I have no problem spending hours in front of a screen every day, I can’t carve out five minutes to pray. I hadn’t realized I struggled with apathy.
But there’s more. I tend to feel like all the conditions have to be right before I sit down and pray. I’ve got to be in a “spiritual mood.” I have to clean myself up or think carefully about what I want to pray about. Is it a selfish prayer? I have felt a need to think through the way I word it. What I learned through the cohort is that God just wants me to pray. It is okay to have a messy prayer. Messy prayers are better than no prayers. Just take all that baggage and just take it to him.
David Jamison with his daughter, Riley, and his son, Keith.
Perhaps the biggest obstacle to my prayer life was my cynicism. God worked through my kids to show me this. We’re a big hockey family and we spend a lot of time at the ice rink. One day we were getting ready to go to the rink when my son Keith said his knee hurt and he didn’t want to skate. I told him, “Oh, you’re going to be fine. I’ll bring your stuff anyway. When we get there, you’ll want to get out on the ice.”
On the drive over, my daughter Riley suggested we should all pray for Keith’s knee. And so we all prayed for his knee to feel better.
When we got to the rink, Keith felt better and wanted to skate. My immediate response was to say, “See, I told you!” But my kids were like, “Daddy, God answered our prayers. He healed Bubba’s knee.”
I sat there so convicted—why is it so hard for me to pray for little things and then give God credit when it happens? It’s just cynicism.
One of the things I realized is that if I really believe that God is king of the universe, that he is sovereign over all things, then he is sovereign over that car ride, over my son’s knees, and he cares.
If I really believe that God is king of the universe, that he is sovereign over all things, then he is sovereign over that car ride, over my son’s knees, and he cares.
I’m by no means an expert on prayer, but after the cohort, I do pray more. I pray messy prayers. I pray for big things and I pray for little things. And through it all, I’m learning to stay more connected to my Heavenly Father.
If your church is interested in doing something like this process David was part of at Northbrook Church, cultivating a heart of prayer among church leadership and then looking to widen that out to the congregation, contact Keith Grant about church partnerships.
If you’re interested in joining a cohort as an individual, the next group of cohorts will launch in January. See details here.
Author: David Jamison
David is a member at Northbrook Church in Fort Worth, Texas. He went through an A Praying Life cohort with Northbrook leaders last spring in preparation to lead a cohort this fall. David shared this testimony with the church to encourage people to join the fall cohorts.
