HOW TO PRAY

On Kindle search, I brought up How to Pray. They listed 575 books on this subject alone. I'm sure most of the authors are well intentioned, like myself. But I'm just as convinced, after one reads each book, they'll find a vast number of ways given in accomplishing this most important feat. Because of this, many of us common Christians can sometimes be more hurt than helped. To the sincere seeker, all these different voices can be confusing. Like on so many other important subjects, our hearts cry out "Who's right?" 

Most certainly, on many important doctrines there is not a multiplicity of ways but one, and one way only, salvation for example. But this does not hold true on other subjects, such as witnessing, giving, administration, etc. There are a number of ways these can be approached and accomplished, each with God's blessing upon them, if done with the right motive. 

And so it is when we come to the subject of how to pray. We need to keep in mind, each of us have different temperaments and come from a variety of religious backgrounds. And also, whether we like it or not, the intellect enters into this equation. All these things flavor how we do many things in our Christian life, and especially is this true of how we pray. For example, the Cornish preacher, Billy Bray, the uncouth and unlearned converted coal-miner, would not pray like the learned and cultured English pastor and theologian, Doctor Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Yet both were used of God! 

The bottom line is this: read all the books on how to pray you'd like, not for emulation, but rather for education. After I read books on our subject, I always say to myself at the end, "PRAY AS YOU CAN AND DON"T TRY TO PRAY AS YOU CAN't." (J.I. Packer)