By Shannon Caughey

How often as a coach do you emphasize to your team the need for communication? Intentional, ongoing communication is essential for the team to reach its full potential. For most athletes, this doesn’t “just happen.” It takes practice. The more your athletes make the effort to talk with one another and listen to one another, the better they become at it and the more fruit they’ll experience as a result of communicating. Practice brings progress.

Communication is also essential to spiritual progress. More specifically, we need to communicate with God through prayer. We see this modeled by Jesus during his time on earth. As the eternal Son of God, Jesus enjoyed perfect communion with God the Father. Yet as one who also became fully human, Jesus knew the need to continually talk with his Father through prayer. A few examples: Mark 1:35 says, “Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray.” According to Luke 6:12, “Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night.” Jesus taught his disciples to pray (Matthew 6:9-13), and he encouraged them to “always pray and never give up” (Luke 18:1).

As followers of Jesus, we need this same communication with God through prayer. Prayer is a conversation with the Lord that flows out of our dependence upon him and leads to a deepening relationship with him. While prayer is crucial, for most of us it doesn’t “just happen.” Prayer takes practice. That’s why the Bible is filled with encouragements to pray, teaching about prayer, and examples of prayer. Let’s look at one passage on the practice of prayer. In Colossians 4:2-4, the Apostle Paul writes:

² Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. ³ Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ. That is why I am here in chains. ⁴ Pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should.

Here are three aspects of the practice of prayer that this passage directs us to implement:

1. Pray with diligence, responsiveness, and gratitude.

To “devote yourselves to prayer” is to make conversation with God a daily part of your life, and this takes diligence. For prayer to become a habitual practice, you must give intentional effort toward this. Praying “with an alert mind” is about recognizing that God is communicating with you, so you desire to be ready to respond to him. It’s the practice of listening to God as you pray, not just doing all the talking. Paul also says to pray with “a thankful heart.” When you consistently practice expressing gratitude to God, you are recognizing what God has already done—including in answer to previous prayer. This encourages you to trust and depend on him even more.

2. Pray for others as well as yourself.

Knowing that the tendency is to focus on ourselves even in prayer, Paul reminds his readers, “Pray for us, too.” Communicating with God about your own needs is good. Also practice praying for the needs of others: family, friends, your athletes and fellow coaches, people in your church family, etc. Pray for them diligently, responding to how the Lord is directing you to pray, and with gratitude for these people. As you do so, you grow closer to God because you’re sharing his care for others.

3. Pray according to God’s purposes.

Paul specifically requests prayer for more opportunities to speak with people about Christ and the message of the gospel—and that he would share clearly and effectively when these opportunities come. This reflects the purposes God desires to carry out through us in the world. Paul’s example is a reminder that as you talk with God about yourself and others, seek to pray according to what he has made clear in his Word regarding his purposes for our lives. The more your requests to the Lord reflect what the Scriptures say about his heart for people and for his work in this world, the deeper your connection with God will be.

Communicating with the Lord through prayer is an essential dimension of a growing relationship with him. Therefore, devote yourself to prayer. Keep practicing prayer and making it part of the rhythm of your daily life. The practice of prayer brings spiritual progress.

For reflection: What specific steps is God leading you to take to grow in praying with diligence, responsiveness, and gratitude; in praying for others; and in praying according to the Lord’s purposes? Talk with him about this. Trust his power and grace to enable you to follow through on these steps.