Praying Through

The term "praying through" is one of those "old timey" phrases that often gets tossed around with little understanding of the meaning.  I'm not sure that I totally understand it either.  One definition that rings true to me is praying until you sense the presence of God, or a sense of peace that God has heard your prayer, or have come face to face with the answer.  The real problem, especially where corporate prayer is concerned, is that in many churches or prayer groups there is an agenda that precludes "praying through".  If God doesn't appear or answer within a prescribed time frame, we tend to end the prayer time until next week.  Rarely do I leave such a group with the sense that we have dialoged with God.  Mostly what we have done is our weekly "dump" of concerns into the lap of God without listening to see if He has questions or suggestions or commands related to our requests.
Case in point; there are names and requests that have been on our church prayer list literally for years.  We usually pray the same thing regarding them, or just overlook them for sake of time and hope that someone will take the list home and pray for them later.
It appears to me that most Biblical prayers grew out of God-initiated situations that drove people to their knees and resulted in God's direction through either the prophets (OT) or the Holy Spirit (NT)  I'm convinced that God desires to interact with His people today as He did in Biblical times.
Whatever it takes, I'm on a mission to learn to "pray through" in every sector of my life; personal, church, family, nationally and internationally.  Won't you join me?  I'd love to hear your ideas re: Praying Through.  Please comment or email me.

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