Prayer is both easy and difficult.

Having your preschooler say their prayers at bedtime is a sacred opportunity to listen to effective prayer.

One of life’s great moments as a Christian parent is to make sure you take the time every evening to pray with your children when they go to bed.

The Good Shepherd is seen in the Gospels spending considerable time with children and taught the apostles and the adult crowds that little children were a very important part of his kingdom. Angels attend little children and children’s faith is a model for all of us to emulate.

On the other hand, prayer can be very difficult.

When Mary and Martha sent an urgent message to Jesus that their beloved brother Lazarus was deathly ill, their message was very brief and asked for nothing. They simply stated the problem. “The one you love is sick.”

When our Lord prayed in Gethsemane His sweat was like great drops of blood.

Effective prayer can be very exhausting.

Do you work diligently at your prayer life?

Do you have urgent prayers like Mary and Martha’s that ask for nothing but merely state the issue in 5-6 words?

“Depend upon it, prayer is power. Prayer obtains fresh and continued outpourings of the Spirit. He alone begins the work of grace in a man’s heart. He alone can carry it forward and make it prosper. But the good Spirit loves to be entreated. And those who ask most will have most of his influence. Prayer is the surest remedy against the devil and besetting sins. That sin will never stand firm which is heartily prayed against.”
- J.C. Ryle

When you pray, do you actually pray?