Spiritual Superhero or Spiritual Failure? - 4 Dec 2015
John White introduces us to Origins, our prayer course especially for 11-18s, which is available now. For more information go to the Origins page.
It’s with fondness - and a smidge of embarrassment - that I remember my first attempts at praying.
I was the classic “youth group kid”. I was all in for Jesus, and believed prayer was the next big step. One night, I sat on my bed and thought: “Let’s do this talking to God thing; it’s going to be amazing.”
I had an expectation that I would pray for hours; that my bedroom would be transformed into a realm of spiritual enlightenment. To be honest, I also wanted my prayers to be so good that I could go back, tell my friends at youth group and become a spiritual superhero.
But as I started to pray, there was a big gap between my expectation and my experience. As my mind wandered, I didn’t know what to ask for. Even when I thought it was going really well, it only lasted for a couple of minutes. And then I fell asleep. The ultimate prayer fail.
So I began to feel really stressed about prayer.
I thought everyone else was probably a lot better than me; doing it more than me; or that I had done something wrong and God didn’t want to talk to me.
Instead of being a spiritual superhero I felt like a spiritual failure.
If I’m really honest it took me a long time before I began to really enjoy prayer. The biggest change for me was letting go of my high expectations and to simply enjoy being with Jesus. I had great Christian leaders all around me when I was growing up, but nobody taught me how to pray on my own.
In the gospel of Luke, one of Jesus’ disciples asks him to teach them something:
“Lord, teach us to pray”
-Luke 11:1
Wouldn’t it be amazing to develop a prayer life without guilt, confusion or competition? To develop deep foundations of prayer that will help anchor you for the rest of their life? This is even more important for young people as they grow in their faith.
Origins is a seven-week prayer course especially for young people aged 11-18. It’s designed to build community and fun as well as helping individuals to learn to pray regardless of background or ability. It’s a flexible design that can be used for youth groups, Christian Unions or small groups. It can be run by leaders or even 11-18 year olds themselves.
With the young people I work with, it’s been so encouraging to see them grow in prayer; to have a space to ask tough questions about prayer and faith.
You can buy your copy of Origins on our online shop now.
If you’re looking for something for a different kind of group why not check out The Prayer Course, which is designed for use across the whole Church family.