To meet the Apostle Paul would have been an exciting prospect.  It would also have been very intimidating.  In his letters he is very intense and writes with great purpose.  Paul’s great desire is to preach Christ and him crucified.  To have him in your Bible Study would also be interesting.  I would feel as though my prayer life was never going to get even close to the level of Paul’s.  As far as the content of his prayers, they also can be a little foreign to the way we normally pray.  This is what makes reading the New Testament so challenging.  As we live in 2010 we have many distractions that take our focus away from following Christ with the same intensity that we see from Paul.  I encourage you to read his letters and to be encouraged to make Jesus number one in all areas of your life.

Colin Watson

Prayer is possible because God has enabled a relationship with him through our faith in Jesus Christ.  We can often find prayer difficult because it can be hard work and something we need to devote time and energy to and that is something we seem to have less of these days.  Paul told us from Colossians that Epaphras wrestled in prayer for the Colossian Christians.  He saw the importance of prayer that took some effort and even discomfort.  Sometimes the lack of habit of praying stops us from this discipline.  There are many people who are in good habits of reading the Bible regularly and praying to their heavenly Father.  We admire them and can sometimes wonder why they find it easy and we don’t.  I think the secret of prayer is understanding who God is; who we are in his sight and continuing in prayer even when we don’t feel like it and it seems like hard work.  Let us encourage each other to pray and to be in constant communion with our heavenly Father.  It is a great privilege that we need to nurture in our lives.

Colin Watson