saints & sinners, page-12

The Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians - "Follow me as I follow Christ" (I Corinthians 11.1).
The key message here is that Christ is the ultimate example. Christians are required to emulate Christ. Where we see a person emulating an aspect of life that is inspirational to us, we can legitimately emulate that aspect of the person's life - but we must recognize that they are merely modeling part of Christ's perfect life.

Prayer is something that should be heartfelt, and is not to be gauged by it's length. Some of the most potent prayers in the Bible are extremely short. For example Christ's prayer when he raised Lazarus - a couple of sentences. Christ used the publican's prayer (Lord be merciful to me, a sinner) as an example of effective prayer. Elijah prayed for rain after the seven years of drought - three short prayers.