About a month ago, our pastor bought copies of Alistair Begg's Pray Big: Learning to Pray Like an Apostle (TheGoodBook Company, 2019) for our congregation, inviting us to pursue a life of persistent and purposeful prayer together. Personal prayer has always been a struggle for me. It's not that I find it difficult to find some time to pray for the needs of family and friends; it's not that I find it hard to praise God for His majesty, glory, and goodness; it's not that I doubt God's attentiveness or responsiveness. Rather, I struggle to find intimacy and connection in my prayer life, and as a result have found it difficult to devote significant time and energy to spending time alone with God in my 'prayer closet'.
In several other fashions, I experience what I think is a close and vibrant relationship with God: I experience His reality and presence in worship; I love His Word and experience His truth communication through reading Scripture; I enjoy learning, reading, and teaching theology, Bible, and apologetics; I find spiritual reward in serving others through church and community. But I have always felt that my prayer life is lacking.
I'm not convinced that reading Alistair Begg's Pray Big has cured my shortcomings in prayer. But nonetheless, I was reminded of many important truths regarding prayer, and learned a number of new things. Given my passion for reading and teaching, I wanted to share six insights from Pray Big that I pray will be an encouragement and exhortation for you.