O, God, our minds are darkened, our wills are weak, our hearts are fickle, our steps are faltering. So this day we ask You to enlighten us, to strengthen us, to guide us, that we may know You, and love You, and follow You all the days of our lives.

                                                                                               —William Barclay

A simple prayer.

An honest prayer.

Everyone’s prayer. 

I am profoundly thankful that we can just be ourselves with God, aren’t you? Tracking the life of Moses as he led the people of Israel out of Egypt is a study in honest communication between God and a godly man trying to follow him in a very tough assignment. Moses never pretended it was easy. As you may recall, these masses were a grumbling and ungrateful group, to say the least. And they never stopped being that way. Never. And do you know what they never entered? The land flowing with milk and honey—The Promised Land. God proved himself over and over to them, but they simply never got it through their thick skulls that he was worthy of their trust and devotion.

But Moses was a different story. He was not perfect, but he visibly grew in his dependence on God. How? Through prayer. You will run out of fingers counting all the times in the book of Exodus where Moses stopped in his tracks and called out to the Lord. When he was uncertain he could do what God was asking of him—he prayed. When the Israelites screamed out for food—he prayed. When they wanted meat—he prayed. When they wanted to go back to Egypt—he prayed. Read the second book in the Bible and see for yourself. It’s really amazing. And by the end of the book, you’ll see a bolder man of faith that you did at the beginning. Why? Because Moses was a man of prayer.

Okay, so what’s the take-away for you and me? We must ask God, as the disciples did in Luke 11:1, “Lord, teach us to pray….” This is a request I pray all the time in my heart. Prayer keeps worry and anxiety at bay. Prayer deepens our relationship with Jesus because we are letting him into all aspects of our lives. Proverbs 15:8 gives us more insight: “…the prayer of the upright pleases him.” How amazing is that? We bring pleasure to God when we talk to him.

What is one way you could increase prayer in your life? Pray back to God a Psalm a day? Say the Lord’s Prayer once a day for a week? Pray the prayers of Paul in Ephesians 1 and 3? Be creative. And be ready to expand your relationship with God.