How to pray well

If you want to pray there are lots of helpful resources. I would especially recommend the 24-7 prayer site:  www.24-7prayer.com/helpmepray
I've often heard that prayer is the key to everything, that the secret is to spend a lot of time on our own seeking God.  Jesus did it and we need to do the same. It's hard to disagree, but maybe it's not the whole story.
This week I've been reading John 15, where Jesus makes an astonishing promise about prayer: ask whatever you wish and the Father will give it to you.
It sounds great, but how are we meant to get there? Jesus' answer is straight forward and perhaps surprising. He commands that we love one another. Then answered prayer will follow.
Love comes first.
If we want to pray like Jesus prayed we must learn to love as he loved.
We pray alone, but we qualify to pray alone in community.
Why is this so? Because only those who love like Jesus loves will pray the prayers that Jesus prayed. It's when we learn to lay our lives down that we get released from selfish prayer and pray in line with the prayers  of Jesus, as his friend.
More on Sunday ...