First, we must pray for ourselves because we have not been thoroughly cleansed. We may have never had a thorough confession. We may have been saved for five or ten years, yet we may have never made a thorough confession to the Lord. It would be good to spend at least two hours to make a thorough confession. Whatever we remember, whatever we feel, and whatever we think about that is sinful must be confessed. We may then continue to pray, "Lord, show me what I am. How is my heart? How is my mind as a part of my heart? Lord, touch my will, my emotions, and my conscience. How is my intuition and the direct feeling in my spirit? How is my fellowship? How is my present situation?" We should pray just concerning ourselves.

When we finish praying for ourselves, we can pray for our closest relatives. Often, before we finish praying for our relatives, another burden will rise up within us to pray for the church. Then we can pray for every elder of the church. It is not necessary to talk to anyone concerning what we pray. That is wrong. We should just bring our impressions before the Lord in prayer and not talk about it. Some may come to us and ask us how we feel about the elders. We should not say anything but pray for each one of them.

We should also pray for the entire church. In 1 Timothy 2:1 Paul charges us to pray for everyone, but do you believe that Timothy had a burden for everyone that he prayed for? So, we must exercise to pray. The more we pray, the more we have the burden to pray. This is true with any part of our being. Even the more it is the same with prayer. When we first learn to pray, we count the minutes. We may be prepared to pray for half an hour, but only nineteen minutes have passed. However, when we enter into a proper prayer life, the time will always go by quickly. We may intend to pray for only one hour, but eventually one and a half hours pass. We all must learn to build up such a prayer life.

I could never forget the account of a British couple who served the Lord. It is a true story. As an aged couple who lived quite long on this earth, they became quite concerned about their remaining days. Since they loved each other, both the husband and the wife preferred to live to see the other party die in order to take care of the other. One day the husband died while praying in the chapel, and the wife passed away while praying at home. They both died at the same time while praying. If we would not pray at length, if we pray for only ten minutes, we could never die while we are praying. If we are going to die while praying, we have to pray for a long time.

Today in the recovery we do have the riches, but just recently I discovered that we are short of one unique thing—prayer. May this term of the full-time training be designated as the term of prayer. All of the trainees must be trained, helped, instructed, and brought into a prayer life. Although this training is one of truth, life, the gospel, and character, without prayer all of these things might be in vain. Therefore, we ourselves must pray. We must learn to pray. The trainers among us must also take the lead to pray more.

In Acts 6 the apostles said, "It is not fitting for us to leave the word of God to serve tables....But we will continue steadfastly in prayer and in the ministry of the word" (vv. 2, 4). Acts 6 tells us clearly that the apostles continued firstly in prayer and then in the ministry of the Word. Not only should we endeavor to put prayer first in our life, but first in our training as well.