I feel that it's a blessing if there is among the next generation an awareness that our prayers are not what we feel they ought to be. There's a dissatisfaction. There's a hunger. I'm coming to the prayer meeting and I'm going away unsatisfied. That's a good thing. That's a good thing. Woe unto us when we are satisfied with mediocrity. When we feel content with a little religious activity. Woe unto us. So that when there is and awareness that things are not what they ought to be. That's a blessing. That's the Lord beginning to work. That's the Lord beginning to teach. It is said of John the Baptist by his disciples that John taught them to pray. John taught them to pray. and there is no doubt that we learn by example there's not a child learns to talk but by example it picks up the accent and the words and the phraseology of those it's listening to every day and what a blessing it is if people have a man of prayer in the pulpit but not wishing to be critical but it's pretty obvious that that is not the case in most pulpits today. That prayer, real prayer, is not obvious. But nevertheless, anyone who is burdened by God with a sense of their own inability in prayer, God's dealing with them. God wishes to teach them. And they should come with that burden to the one who gave them that burden. And getting down before him, begin to pray, Lord, teach me to pray. Teach me to pray. And God will. God will. Most of the great men and women of the past were all taught directly by the Lord to pray. And God is still the teacher. God is still the teacher. So get before the Lord. Get before the Lord with your Bible. and ask Him to come, draw near to you, fill you with His Spirit, and open your mouth in prayer.
These impromptu videos were taken at my request when I last visited with Rev Ivan Foster in 2014. My own personal prayer life being so shaped by this man, I sought to capture some of his thoughts on the vital discipline of prayer.