For many years I have given myself to teaching and mobilizing prayer. Though it is a great privilege, it is also frustrating at times. For a very long time I felt that if Christians were just more committed, they would pray more. If they loved Jesus more, they would pray more. That led me to hit hard at levels of commitment in my teaching.But the Lord has recently been showing me that it isn’t commitment, it’s theology. Most of the pastors and church leaders that I teach and work with are completely committed. They are sold out for Jesus. They will do anything for Him. The lack of prayer in their lives has much more to do with theology than with lack of commitment.

The American church, in particular, believes poorly concerning prayer. We look at prayer as a way of getting things from God. Or we look at it mainly as something that helps move us spiritually. Sometimes we even look at much prayer as in the realm of specialists, rather than for “regular” Christians.

What will really transform our prayer lives is when we begin to believe what the Bible says about prayer. When we begin to see that prayer is the way God has chosen to accomplish His will on planet earth, we will move it to a more central place in our lives. Right theology on prayer moves it from somewhere on our “to do” list to an integral part of who we are as Christians.