Prayer is something that we all attempt and that we all struggle with. It’s nothing like buying stuff on the internet. You can’t just click on what you want God to do for you, type in your church membership details and then wait for the goods to be delivered. It’s about relationship. Sometimes we’re talking; sometimes we’re listening. Sometimes God’s the one who needs to act; sometimes it’s us. Sometimes it’s an outpouring of our woes; sometimes it’s an overflowing of delight. It’s everything: it’s life, it’s honesty, and more than anything else it’s love.

You can’t teach someone to pray. You can only encourage them to do it. Jesus’ disciples were surprised that he didn’t teach them to pray; instead, he simply told them to get on with it, and he told them to get on with it simply. I think part of the trouble in Church is that people assume that prayer can be taught, or that it needs to be poetic, or that other people are better at it than them. It doesn’t work like that.

During May we’re going to take a practical look at praying. We’re going to take a look at what some people experienced, and what other people said. It’s not going to be an A to Z, more of an a.b.c. And through it all, what we need to keep in mind is that the aim is not to be clever, but to inspire people to get on and experience God for themselves.