When I was a kid, my sunday school teachers taught me how to pray. For those of you who grew up in church, you probably experienced something like what I’m talking about. We had to take off our hats, sit very still, keep our backs straight and our hands folded and then pray. And if this weren’t enough, there were all these formulas. I remember being in Middle school and being taught that when you pray, you spell out the word “ACTS” - Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. Wow. To be honest, that was so much trouble, that I basically never prayed. The funny thing is, if you actually read the Bible, Jesus didn’t talk about prayer like that at all. When He taught His followers about having a prayer life that is healthy and strong, He told a story about a widow who was trying to get justice out of a local judge. She pestered him and pestered him, pleading incessantly and finally the judge gave in. In the story, the judge says that he granted her request because she kept ‘bothering’ him and she was about to ‘wear him out.’ The Greek word we have translated ‘bother’ can also be translated, “beat up,” and the Greek word we have translated ‘wear out’ is a word that means to punch someone under the eye! In other words, Jesus said that a healthy prayer life is not about sitting straight, folding your hands and saying the right words. A healthy prayer life is one where you take the deepest needs of your heart to Almighty God and punch Him in the face with them. Throw those haymaker punches and just keep swinging! Jesus loves a knock-out punch prayer life.
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