Somebody taught you. Now teach one person.
Almost nobody learns to pray from a book. They learn it from a person who was already doing it and let them watch — a grandmother with a notebook, an older man who prayed out loud in a car without being embarrassed.
The pattern is old and it is simple.
Paul told Timothy to entrust what he had heard to faithful people who would be able to teach others. Four generations of transmission in a single sentence, and none of it required a platform. It required one person willing to be watched.
You are more qualified than you think.
You do not need seminary, a clean record, or twenty years of practice. You need to be about six months ahead of someone and honest about the parts you have not figured out. The honesty is not a weakness in the method; it is the method.
Ask one person. Not a program.
Look for someone one season behind you: a newer believer, a younger colleague, a nephew, a person who asked you an honest question once and you fumbled the answer. Ask them for six weeks. Six weeks is short enough to say yes to.
Let them see the unimpressive parts.
The most useful thing you can show someone is not a polished prayer. It is what you do on the mornings you do not feel like praying, how you handle a prayer that got a no, and what your actual notebook looks like — crossed out, dated, ordinary.
A six-week outline
Week 1 — Honest speech
What prayer is and is not. Pray one sentence out loud together. That is the whole first meeting.
Week 2 — A place
Help them set up their space. Physically, if you can. Take the first three cards with you.
Week 3 — Words
Walk through PRAY, ACTS, and praying Scripture back. Let them pick one and drop the rest.
Week 4 — Someone to fight for
Choose one name and one thing. Write the card together and date it.
Week 5 — When nothing happens
The most important week. Unanswered prayer, silence, and what to do with disappointment without pretending.
Week 6 — Handing it on
Ask them who they could do this with. Then let them go, and keep answering the phone.
A prayer you can pray tonight
Lord, someone did this for me, whether they knew it or not. Show me one person I am six months ahead of, and give me the nerve to ask them. Keep me from performing. Let them see the ordinary parts, including the mornings I do not want to be here. Amen.
Or ask for one
If you would like someone to walk with you for six weeks rather than the other way round, write to us. CBA Orlando will try to connect you with a real person — no program, no cost, no obligation.