Continuing on with some reflections on prayer which I'm titling "Lord, teach us to pray once again."  (I would encourage you to read/pray through my post "May we learn to value the blood bought privilege of prayer" in addition to this post.)

Lord God,

You taught us through your servant Elijah, a man like us, who prayed fervently, who was not slothful, but served you in that behind the scenes ministry of prayer.

O, may we not be slothful in zeal, but fervent in Spirit.
Lord, teach us to pray.
May Your Spirit burn in us so we might pray with the fervency of Elijah, so we might serve You in the ministry of prayer.
May we go to Your throne of grace and may we keep going again and again.

Lord God, You have already taught us to pray...
Yet we are so slow to learn...
Father, have mercy on us.
Forgive us, for Jesus' sake.
Though we are slow to learn, we come to You and ask us to teach us again...

O, may we not be slothful in zeal, but fervent in Spirit.
Lord, teach us to pray.
May Your Spirit burn in us so we might pray with the fervency of Elijah, so we might serve You in the ministry of prayer.
May we go to Your throne of grace and may we keep going again and again.

Lord God, we confess have a hard time waiting on You.
We can pray regularly for a time, but then we pray less and less often.
We start out praying with urgency but soon we become lackadaisical.
And soon we sometimes stop praying altogether.
Forgive us, O Lord.

O, may we not be slothful in zeal, but fervent in Spirit.
Lord, teach us to pray.
May Your Spirit burn in us so we might pray with the fervency of Elijah, so we might serve You in the ministry of prayer.
May we go to Your throne of grace and may we keep going again and again.

We boil up and become fervent about so many other things, worldly concerns,
but how often do we boil over with a passion to meet with You in prayer?
We take time to meet with other people, but how much zeal do we have to meet with You in prayer?
How often are we really fervent in prayer?
How often are our prayers just lip service wrought out of our dead flesh rather than a fruit of Your living Spirit?
Have we ever really prayed fervently like Elijah?

O, may we not be slothful in zeal, but fervent in Spirit.
Lord, teach us to pray.
May Your Spirit burn in us so we might pray with the fervency of Elijah, so we might serve You in the ministry of prayer.
May we go to Your throne of grace and may we keep going again and again.

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.
He was weak, yet strengthened through Your Spirit.
He was tempted to be apathetic, yet he was made fervent by Your Spirit.
He was tempted to be slothful, yet he was made zealous by Your Spirit.
O, how much more can we be strengthened through Your Spirit who has come to dwell in us!

O, may we not be slothful in zeal, but fervent in Spirit.
Lord, teach us to pray.
May Your Spirit burn in us so we might pray with the fervency of Elijah, so we might serve You in the ministry of prayer.
May we go to Your throne of grace and may we keep going again and again.

Lord God, our spirits are willing but our flesh is weak.
We saw how Your mighty Spirit strengthened Elijah.
We are weak, strengthen us through Your Spirit to pray with fervency and zeal.
We are apathetic, make us fervent by Your Spirit to pray with fervency and zeal.
We are slothful, make us zealous by Your Spirit to pray with fervency and zeal.
O living Spirit of God, send Your fire and Your passion, fill us with Yourself, make us zealous to pray!
O Spirit of truth, put into our minds and hearts Your holy thoughts, desires and words to speak to our Father.

O, may we not be slothful in zeal, but fervent in Spirit.
Lord, teach us to pray.
May Your Spirit burn in us so we might pray with the fervency of Elijah, so we might serve You in the ministry of prayer.
May we go to Your throne of grace and may we keep going again and again.

O, Lord God, we confess we so often get busy doing lots of things, granted they are good things.
We too easily forget serving You includes spending time in prayer with You.
May we be zealous for our times of prayer.
Remind us of the blood You shed for the privilege of prayer, the price You paid so we could freely commune with You at Your throne.
Keep us ever-mindful of this service of prayer, this ministry of prayer, to which You call each of Your children,
particularly Your pastors.
We lift them up to You and ask You would renew their zeal and passion for prayer again.
Protect their time. Help them be good stewards of their time.
Help their people to understand the importance of prayer.

O, may we not be slothful in zeal, but fervent in Spirit.
Lord, teach us to pray.
May Your Spirit burn in us so we might pray with the fervency of Elijah, so we might serve You in the ministry of prayer.
May we go to Your throne of grace and may we keep going again and again.

O, Lord God, look upon Your Church now.
You know we are in a wilderness time.
We walk by the flesh rather than Your Spirit.
We are bearing little fruit or bad fruit right now.
Forgive us, O Lord.
Have mercy on us!
Though there is not an exact parallel here with the account of Elijah...
Yet we see we are now in desperate need of rain.
The Church is indeed dry and barren in so many ways.
There is a form of godliness but a denial of the power.
There is an outward conformity but not an inward fire.
There is creedal confession without regeneration.
Send Your rain upon us, Lord God.
Refresh, revive and renew us with Your Holy Spirit for the sake of Your Holy Name.
We have no hope apart from You.

O, may we not be slothful in zeal, but fervent in Spirit.
Lord, teach us to pray.
May Your Spirit burn in us so we might pray with the fervency of Elijah, so we might serve You in the ministry of prayer.
May we go to Your throne of grace and may we keep going again and again.