Sunergos Aletheia

"Dear God, I...

Wait, what time is it? Need to keep an eye on it or I'll be late for work...

I thank you for this brand new day you've given me...

But it's so stinkin early...

I praise you for your great power, love and mercy...

I hate these early morning starts. I'm sure my boss gives them to me just out of spite. He knows I can't function like this...

Ooops, sorry God, where were we? Power, love, mercy. Check. Check. Check. And all your other great attributes and characteristics...

Argh, can't think straight this morning! Wish I'd gone to bed earlier last night...

God, make me a picture of you today...

albeit I'm gonna be grumpy so I'm gonna need coffee...

Shine your light through my words and actions throughout today...

Coffee! Maybe I can grab one on the way to work...

And God...

Argh work!! I'm gonna be late!

Gotta go, God! Talk to you later!"

    Ever had that feeling that your prayer life just isn't working. You sit down to pray and suddenly a million other thoughts invade your mind. You can't concentrate and you just don't feel like praying. Or maybe you've sinned and you don't feel worthy of approaching the throne of a Holy God or you can't work out if it is the will of God to answer your prayer. You want to talk to God, but somehow it never seems to work out the way old preachers and evangelists tell it.

    In Luke 18:1, Jesus taught that "men ought always to pray and not to faint" and yet statistics show that prayer is something that few Christians engage in very often. In fact, startingly 1 in every 5 American agnostics and atheists pray every single day while most Christians struggle to even talk to God once a week.

    Is it that it's hard to concentrate and focus? This should only be expected because prayer is a part of spiritual warfare. (Eph 6:12, 18) Warfare is gonna be hard, but God supplies the answer to this problem in Prov. 16:3. "Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established." Prayer is a work. If we want our thoughts and prayers to be ordered and established, we need to commit them to God.

    So it is just that we don't feel like praying? There are many areas in our life where we have to discipline ourselves to do things that we don't feel like doing. Thomas Edison once said that Genius was only 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Prayer can be a similar thing. Although the desire to talk with our God usually dwells deep within us as Christians, sometimes it takes the other 99% of perspiration to actually do it. Either way, Scripture clearly teaches that despite feelings, prayer is a must for the believer's life. As Martin Luther once wrote,

    "Feelings come and feelings go,

    And feelings are deceiving;

    My warrent is the Word of God,

    Naught else is worth believing."

    Perhaps the reason we sometimes don't pray is that we feel guilty. We've sinned and we feel the weight of it seemingly dragging us from the throne room. Or the shame of it alienating us from our Saviour. But stop a moment and think: Prayer is impossible without a mediator. Our mediator is Christ. Prayer is based on the blood of Christ - not our own works. And even when we don't feel worthy of God's attention, "God is greater than our hearts" so we simply need to plead the blood of Christ to "pray and not to faint" anyway.

    Lastly, is the reason we don't pray because we're not sure if the matter at hand is God's will or not? This last answer is perhaps the simplest of all. Pray on until you're sure if it is and then stop praying about it if it isn't.

    Prayer is the gateway to God's heart. Even Bible study is trumped by a time of regular, private and meaningful prayer. The devil actually prefers that we spend time in profitable Christian pursuits or delving into the deepest Scriptural doctrines then for us to sit down to pray. Prayer is how we bond with our Saviour. Prayer is how our relationship with Him grows. Prayer is what will make or break your Christian walk.

"Men ought always to pray and not to faint."

Don't ever allow distraction, restlessness, discouragement, guilt or uncertainty steal from you a priceless relationship with your God!

"Pray when you feel like it, for it is a sin to neglect such an opportunity. Pray when you don't feel like it, for it's dangerous to remain in such a condition!" - Ruth Bell Graham.