- II. Why Should I Pray?
- 1. Because I am commanded of the Lord to pray.
- 2. Because through prayer I keep in tune with the Spirit of the Lord.
- 3. Because it is through prayer that I acknowledge the goodness of God.
- 4. Because through prayer I petition for needed blessings.
- 5. Because through prayer I establish and preserve an attitude of humility.
Under question three:
- III. How Should I Pray?
- 1. Simply.
- 2. Sincerely.
- 3. In spirit.
- 4. After the pattern of His prayer.
- 5. In secret as well as in public.
Under question four:
- IV. When Should I Pray?
- 1. Regularly.
- 2. Morning and evening.
- 3. To meet special needs.
- 4. My attitude should always be one of prayerfulness.
This matter of organization may be diagrammatically illustrated as follows:
| Random Thoughts | Organized Thoughts | |
| The hymnThe songWhat is the use of prayer?Are prayers answered?How often should I pray?What are the characteristics of a good prayer, etc.? | Focus or Aim To establish prayer as a life habit. | I. What is Prayer?II. Why should I pray?III. How Should I Pray?IV. When Should I Pray? |
In short, organizing involves the search for thought and the bringing of order out of chaos. Having selected the aim, the main headings, and the sub-headings, we now face step four—the enriching of these sub-headings in illustration, incident, etc., so that we may link up these thoughts with the experience of our pupils. We may think of so much stimulating material that during the ordinary class hour we can cover well only one of these questions. Our purpose and the needs of the class must determine the extent of our detail. The actual material that could be used to enrich this lesson on prayer will be given in the chapter on illustration.
Step five involves the problem of application, or "carry-over into life"—a subject to which another chapter will be devoted. Of course, we ought to say here, in passing, that application is not something added to or "tacked on" a lesson. It may be emphasized at the close of a lesson, but in reality it pervades and is inherent in the whole lesson.