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"I've had bad experiences in the past." Experience is not always the best teacher. For many of us, group prayer in the past hasn't been very enjoyable. Perhaps you've been afraid to pray aloud. Or maybe the group was dominated by the long-winded prayers of a few. New or unusual styles of prayer and worship can put us off as well.

Praying in a group can be like learning to ride a bike. When the training wheels come off, riding the bike doesn't seem like that much fun, especially after a couple of spills! But with practice and familiarity, the joys of riding a bike make us quickly forget the difficulty we had in learning. Try to give the people you're praying with a chance to include you and to grow in their understanding of prayer with you.

"My personal prayer times are good enough." Sometimes this is true, but both personal prayer and prayer with others is essential. God speaks through his people, using them to encourage us, to challenge us and to correct us when needed. Faith is not an individual matter.

"I'm too busy." Have you ever noticed how easy it is to miss prayer meetings? We say we're too busy, but we always make time to eat, study and sleep. As Eric Alexander said at Urbana '84, "Prayer is not supplemental, it is fundamental." Our mistake is thinking that prayer is something we tack on to our other activities, when in fact it is the heart of the matter.

"I have other pressing issues I'm dealing with." Sometimes it's hard to look into the future. For many of us it's downright scary, especially when we think about what we will be doing after we graduate from college! Maybe that's why the author of Hebrews says, "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another -- and all the more as you see the Day approaching" (10:25).