Oh, worship the LORD in the beauty of His holiness! Psalm 96:9

To many modern ears, exhortations for Christians to pray fall flat. What might have seemed appropriate for the early Church now seems irrelevant and out of touch to the social media age.  

But our ambivalence to prayer, if not outright unwillingness, should seem reprehensible in light of the many doorways that God uses to draw us into prayer. One such doorway is our wonder of the character of our Lord. “Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering and come into His courts! Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness;” says the Psalmist in Psalm 96. Reflection upon His attributes should draw us to prayer and praise.

Next, we are commanded to pray. Paul’s admonition to the Thessalonians to pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17) was just that. An admonition. Paul offered no argument. He was merely following Jesus’ example. Three times Jesus uses the phrase “when you pray” in his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6. Jesus assumed that disciples of His would be in prayer.

Struggling with our own sinfulness should compel us to pray. Focusing of God’s goodness, our pitiful shortcomings should drive us to our knees. Lacking confessional prayer does not necessarily indicate a godly lifestyle. 

Compassion for others and their own struggles against sin should encourage us to pray. Those who have endured long struggles with their obstinate hearts know sin’s refractory natures.                                            

The Church’s intense suffering should compel us to pray. Her sufferings of injustice, trials, persecutions, torture, and death should not go unnoticed.  As should racial and social division, the plight of the poor and the needy, and society’s assault upon the unborn and aged.

Our experience of God’s grace should spur us on to pray for others. A church with a growing number of such believers is a church in revival. And when revival appears, believers will readily use each of these doorways of prayer.

The doorways to prayer are many and we should often find ourselves in front of each door at various times in our Christian walk.