Trouble in the Sunday School

Jim Robinson gives John Caves some thoughts on a life of prayer.

I was quite troublesome at Sunday School - and I wasn't the only one. Our class used to be led by the Sunday School Superintendent but he realised he was getting nowhere with us. So he called for help from other Methodist churches. A new teacher took over and he told us something that I could not get out of my mind. He said it was very important that we never failed to kneel down to pray and ask Jesus to come into our hearts. That same night I did just that.

This wasn't new to me because Mum had made sure each night that we knelt at her knee to say our prayers before going to bed. As older children she made sure we still had a time of prayer at the end of the day. I have never stopped. Now I have my prayer time early in the morning and last thing at night.

Sometimes when we say The Lord's Prayer together in a large meeting I wonder if it means a lot to us - or is it something we just go through? Have some of us who go to church regularly ever found out what prayer really is?

So why pray? It isn't to tell God what to do. In prayer we come to God and hope that we are open to His guiding. If we accept Him and believe that He is Almighty we will be helped to stand firm in difficult circumstances. I know this from personal experience.

We will also find we are given things to say that we haven't prepared. I remember a former minister of our church asked me to say the closing prayer one week. That day we had a large christening party in the church who were not known to us. I was nervous. As I stood up I heard a voice say "You have asked Me to be with you." Afterwards the grandfather came up to me and thanked me for the prayer. The words he had heard were not mine - they had come from The Lord.

That's the power of prayer.

Pages compiled by Peter Fletcher

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