“Souls are perishing because there is so little prayer. God’s children are feeble because there is too little prayer. We bear so little fruit because there is so little prayer. The faith of this promise would make us strong to pray, let us not rest till it has entered into our very heart and drawn us in the power of Christ to continue and labor and strive in prayer until the blessings comes in power.”
-Andrew Murray
-The True Vine
So little prayer… Does this describe your life of prayer? Before you answer this question let’s look at some other areas of our lives. Many areas of the Christians life will bear the answer to the first question. Andrew Murray states that the children of God are feeble because of too little prayer. To understand the word feeble in our life let’s think about the word fruit. How is your fruit bearing today? Think about three areas, witnessing for Christ, worship and conduct. How is your fruit in these areas, is there abundance, some, or feeble amounts of fruit being displayed? Before you answer we must remember that fruit is not produced by self-effort, but on reliance upon God. One can be strong in self-effort to glorify God, but deep down it is an effort to glorify self. One can look strong in faith, but truly be feeble in its exercise. Feebleness when it comes to the spiritual life is not focused on how strong the person is, but how dependant they are upon God. Think back to the beatitudes:
And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5:2-12
Those who are called blessed are not those who by their own strength have overcome, but those who are weak who looked and were dependant on God’s strength. We look too much to the outer person to see if they are weak or strong, but God looks at the heart. Our feebleness or strength is not by self-effort, but by dependency. The world looks at the feeble things of this world as weak, but God uses the weak things to confound the strong. (1 Corinthians 1:27) Now ask yourself are you feeble, or strong? Are you producing fruit for the kingdom by your strength of self-effort or by dependency upon God?
Now we can go back to our original question. I think the person who lives by self-effort and desires to be self-sufficient tends to have a weak prayer life; they tend to pray too little, but why? There can be many reasons for this in the life of the Christian. It can be because of discouragement since prayers have not been answered. They may have a false belief that they must get things on their own, being self-sufficient because God helps those who help themselves. Maybe because deep down they don’t believe God hears their prayers. Or that God is going to do what He wants, and isn’t affected by the petitions of His children. There are many reasons for our feebleness in prayer. What about you, do you see your prayer life as feeble, or weak? Do you think you pray too little? If the question is no, than praise God, but if your answer is yes, then why do you pray so little? Many times we have excuses for a weak prayer life. We say we don’t have the time, or I don’t see any response to my prayers. When something is important to us, we make the time; we make the effort, don’t we? Or maybe we are afraid of prayer. Is there something inside of you that doesn’t want to draw to near to God today? I mean what would happen if we drew near to God? At one point we say we would have peace in our lives, but we don’t have the time. Is that true? J. Oswald Sanders states, “We are at this moment as close to God as we really choose to be. True, there are times when we would like to know a deeper intimacy, but when it comes to the point, we are not prepared to pay the price involved.” There is a price to pay when we draw closer to God, there is the price of time, the price of energy, and the price of faithfulness. What would you have to give up to be more committed in prayer life? What would happen if you were to draw near to God today? What would He ask of you that you are not willing to do or let go of in your life? Are these the things that keep you from having a deeper prayer life? Or is there something else?
For some of us what stands in the way is ourselves, but at other times there is another who looks to block our intimacy with God. Satan looks to block our path when it comes to our prayer life; he looks to keep us distant from God, because he knows this will make us ineffective for the kingdom of God. When it comes to times when you feel the need to prayer, what happens in your heart and mind? Are there objections, things to do, places to go, or things to read? Does your mind put up roadblocks in times of prayer? While some want to blame Satan for everything in life we must guard ourselves against this kind of thinking, because it looks to put the responsibility on someone else outside of ourselves. It doesn’t matter if is it spiritual warfare, or our own resistance to prayer, because when we don’t pray, we are the ones who are responsible for our lack of effort.
Back to the question I first asked, “so little prayer… does this describe your life of prayer?” For some of us today, the answer is no, for some of us the answer is yes. If your answer is yes, than what truly stands in the way of you having a deeper prayer life? What would happen in your life if you were committed to prayer each and every day? Is there something you need to give up to have a deeper intimacy with God; is it the television, the computer, books, magazines, or time with others? Is it sin, selfishness or self-sufficiency in your life? If your prayer life is feeble today, then we must remember all of us have different reason for this, but we all have the same response, we must rely upon God to deepen us in our time of prayer, and we must rely upon Him in our time of prayer. Self-effort to improve our prayer life will bring about little or no change. We must come to God, expecting Him to act, even if our prayers are small, and short. We must look at what hinders us, and then turn from it.
In closing I want you to think about something today, what does your prayer life cost you today? For those who have an active prayer life, what is the cost? For those who pray too little what is it costing you and others? What is it costing your spiritual life and the life of others around you whom you neglect in prayer? No matter what side you fall on with the question of pray, both sides have a cost, is it a cost that you are willing to pay? So little prayer… does this describe your life of prayer?
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. James 4:1-3
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