Years ago I traveled to San Antonio to meet with a friend and spiritual mentor. While we enjoyed a lunch of great Mexican food, we caught up on each other’s lives and ministries.
Later, with full stomachs and warm hearts, we walked out of the restaurant to say our farewells and head our respective ways.
But my mentor wasn’t quite finished with me. He asked me to join him in his old, beat-up Ford Bronco for a few moments of prayer. I gladly complied. Those few moments marked me forever.
My mentor asked God for something I had never heard before. He prayed that I would love to pray. He prayed that I would enjoy praying. He prayed that it would be easy for me to pray.
His words blew me away. I had never before thought about praying about my prayer life. But I’ve been praying about it ever since.
The prophet Isaiah spoke an amazing promise to Gentiles who embraced the God of Israel: God would bring them to His holy mountain (a metaphor for His holy presence) and would make them joyful in His house of prayer (see Isaiah 56:6–7). What a beautiful image! For many of us, prayer is drudgery, work, and flat-out boring.
Most Christians would rather endure a root canal than be forced to spend an hour in prayer. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Prayer doesn’t have to be an hour of hard labor.
Start praying for God to help you love prayer. Use the language of Isaiah and ask God to make you joyful in His house of prayer. God will honor your request. I know, because over the last 20 years He has answered mine.
I can trace my desire to pray and my joy in prayer all the way back to those few moments in that Bronco. God honored my mentor’s prayers for me, and He’s been honoring mine ever since.
O God, give me a heart of prayer. Let prayer be easy for me. Help me see it as a joy, not labor, and a privilege, not a chore. Precious God, do as Your Word promises. Make me joyful in Your house of prayer!
