Hi, I’m Bethany Morris, and I have been attending GFC for several years.  I serve with the Hospitality ministry and volunteer with Re:Generation.  I recently attended Prayer School at GFC, and I’d like to share a few thoughts on my experience.

I grew up in church, so I’ve known from an early age that prayer was an important spiritual discipline.  But with all the demands of life, a time set aside simply for prayer had fallen by the wayside.  Most days, I do short little “popcorn” prayers throughout the day… “Lord, help me with this,” or “Thank you for that,” or “Forgive me for losing my patience in the school car line.” 😊 I was praying, but there was no deep intimacy with God in it.

I signed up for Prayer School because I thought it might give me some tips and practical applications for improving my prayer life. So, I was a little surprised when Matt made it clear from the beginning that he wasn’t suggesting we change or quit doing anything related to how we were praying now, just adding a suggested format. He explained that spiritual practices provide a structure for spiritual growth. Like a trellis for plants, they provide the structure needed for growth, but they don’t actually do the work of growing. The structure around prayer is the same. We need a structure of time-tested, Biblically grounded prayers to help form us and teach us to pray better. The actual spiritual growth is cultivated from having a more intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father.
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Acts 2:42