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.

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 one.)

Lord, we heard You, Good Teacher, while You were in the flesh here, fully God and fully man, tempted as we are and yet without sin...warning us that we always ought to pray or else we would lose heart and become faint:

Good Shepherd, have mercy on us, we are the sheep of Your pasture.
We confess we wander away from You and we do not pray as we ought.
Lord, teach us to pray once again so we might "not lose heart" & "faint."

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.

Good Shepherd, have mercy on us, we are the sheep of Your pasture.
We confess we wander away from You and we do not pray as we ought.
Lord, teach us to pray once again so we might "not lose heart" & "faint."

Father, Son and Spirit,
We confess we often find ourselves losing heart.
We confess we often find ourselves fainting.
We confess we so often busy ourselves with so much activity,
but not so often are we busy with the activity of prayer.
Forgive us, O Lord God.

Good Shepherd, have mercy on us, we are the sheep of Your pasture.
We confess we wander away from You and we do not pray as we ought.
Lord, teach us to pray once again so we might "not lose heart" & "faint."

Because we are Yours by grace through faith,
because we are adopted into Your family,
because we are of Your Kingdom,
because we are not of this world,
in this world we have been promised opposition,
in this world we have been promised persecution.

When taunting arises (and it certainly will!),

When opposition arises (and it certainly will!),

When persecution arises (and it certainly will!),

When taunting and opposition and persecution arise...
when we are not rightly rooted in You,
when we are not rightly rooted in prayer,
whenever the winds begin to blow,
whenever the storm comes,
whenever the rocking comes,
we will find we will too easily lose heart,
we will find we will too easily faint
because we are not firmly rooted in prayer
because we are not firmly established in You
because our hearts are not firmly settled on You
because our minds are not steadfastly fixed on You
because we have not followed Your command to pray always
we end up losing heart,
we end up faint,
and our faith is capsized.

How can we expect to fight the good fight apart from Your means?
How can we expect to fight the good fight apart from persevering in prayer?

Good Shepherd, have mercy on us, we are the sheep of Your pasture.
We confess we wander away from You and we do not pray as we ought.
Lord, teach us to pray once again so we might "not lose heart" & "faint."

We confess we have not continued to abide in the true Vine.
We confess we have not tarried in prayer.
We confess we have continued to go back to you again and again with our requests.
We confess we have not sat and listened for Your still small voice.
We confess we have not obeyed Your command to pray as we ought.

Forgive us, Father, for Jesus' sake.
We long to be able to pray so we might not lose heart or faint.
Strengthen us with Your Spirit so we might be able to pray as we ought.
What good are we in the battle if we end up losing heart there?
What good are we in the battle if we end up fainting there?

How can we expect to fight the good fight apart from Your means?
How can we expect to fight the good fight apart from persevering in prayer?

Good Shepherd, have mercy on us, we are the sheep of Your pasture.
We confess we wander away from You and we do not pray as we ought.
Lord, teach us to pray once again so we might "not lose heart" & "faint."

You have told us to pray without ceasing so we will not lose heart and faint.
We confess we may pray about something only a few times, but not persevere like the widow.
You have told us to pray without ceasing so we will not lose heart and faint.
We confess we find it oh so hard to cease our activity, our doing and pray again and again.
We confess we find it oh so hard to cease our activity, and actively engage ourselves in prayer.
We confess we find it oh so hard to stop and speak to You.
We confess we find it oh so hard to pray without ceasing.

Good Shepherd, have mercy on us, we are the sheep of Your pasture.
We confess we wander away from You and we do not pray as we ought.
Lord, teach us to pray once again so we might "not lose heart" & "faint."

You have told us to pray without ceasing so we will not lose heart and faint.
We confess we may pray about something only a few times, but not persevere like the widow.
You have told us to pray without ceasing so we will not lose heart and faint.
We confess we find oh so hard to cease our activity and stop and speak to You.
We confess we find it even so much harder to cease our speaking to You in prayer
and to sit in Your presence and be silent and listen to You...
and then to sit longer when You have been silent and wait on You to speak to us...
and to keep coming back and sitting and listening again and again.

Good Shepherd, have mercy on us, we are the sheep of Your pasture.
We confess we wander away from You and we do not pray as we ought.
Lord, teach us to pray once again so we might "not lose heart" & "faint."

You have told us to pray without ceasing so we will not lose heart and faint.
Give us ears to hear You.
Help us to listen to You,
not to listen to our own speech,
not to listen to our own thoughts,
not to listen to our fears,
not to listen to our own wisdom,
not to listen to our own lusts,
not to listen to our own ambitions,
not to listen to the devil's lies,
not to listen to the temptations of the world,
not to listen to the praises of our friends,
not to listen to the taunts of our opponents.
Stop our ears to all else but Your still small voice. Open our ears to hear only You, O Lord.

Good Shepherd, have mercy on us, we are the sheep of Your pasture.
We confess we wander away from You and we do not pray as we ought.
Lord, teach us to pray once again so we might "not lose heart" & "faint."

We can only have strong hearts,
we can only persevere without fainting,
as we abide in You and Your words
(how can we abide in You and Your words if we never take time to be silent and listen?)
as we sit and wait upon You in prayer
as we continue to dwell with You
as we fix our eyes on You
as we fix our thoughts on You
as we fix our minds on You,

Good Shepherd, have mercy on us, we are the sheep of Your pasture.
We confess we wander away from You and we do not pray as we ought.
Lord, teach us to pray once again so we might "not lose heart" & "faint."

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

Lord Jesus, we saw You, Immanuel, while You were in the flesh here, fully God and fully man, tempted as we are and yet without sin...intentionally slipping away, purposefully taking time to withdraw alone so You might pray and commune with Your Father.

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.

We confess we so often want to busy ourselves with working and doing,
but we forget that one of main works You call us to is the work of prayer.
Lord Jesus, You keep seeking Your Father's face in prayer, should we not do the same?
You died on the cross so we might come into Your presence and pray.

We love You, but we confess our love for You is so weak and incomplete.
We know there is no way we can follow Your devotion and dedication in prayer about from Your power to do so.
May Your Holy Spirit place into our hearts a deeper love for You.
Put into our hearts a deeper desire to know You so we might pant, hunger and thirst after You.
We confess we so often pant, hunger and thirst after things in this world.
We confess we often do not make that time to arise very early in the morning.
The next thing we know it is very late at night and we have not prayed, not really prayed as we ought,
but we have spent time doing so many other things, even good things.
O, we may have prayed, but have we really, really prayed and met You in deep fellowship?

O, Lord God, You are the center of our lives.
Without You we are and we have nothing.
Without You we would be lost, but now we have been found.
Without You we were not a people, but now we are a people.
We are the people of God; You are our Father.
Yet how often do we act childish and not come to You in prayer.
Restore to us childlike spirits, so we might seek Your face constantly.

Your Spirit dwells in us and has given us the Spirit of adoption so we might say, "Abba, Father!"
Yet, how often do we say those words?
Do we save "Abba, Father" only for our times of dire need and desperation?
How foolish we are. Every moment, every day of our lives is a time of need.
Apart from Your Spirit showing us, we see ourselves as rich and needing nothing.
Show us our poverty and our neediness.
We are poor and needy, and we have nothing apart from You.
We are poor and needy, and we can do nothing apart from You.
You are to be the center of our lives.
You are to be the center of our days.
You are to be the center of all we do.
Just as You placed Your holy tabernacle in the center of all the tribes of Israel,
You are to be placed in the center of the Church, in the center of each of our lives.
Forgive us when we put other thing in the center rather than You.
Teach us to number our days and to make the most of the time we have here.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Lord, teach us to pray once again.