Last week we looked at two reasons that keep us from "praying without ceasing:" 1) we're too busy and 2) we don't want to "bother" God. We realized that both of those things are wrong. The first thing deals with our selfish heart and the second reason deals with false thinking. We've got to be careful to guard ourselves from such things.
Today we're going to uncover a third thing that keeps us from "praying without ceasing."
3. We forget what prayer is. My dad once said in a sermon, "If I told you that God was coming to my house today at five o'clock and that He wanted to talk to you, would you be there?" The question was rhetorical; an answer wasn't needed. And why? Of course you'd be there! If the Almighty God wanted to communicate with you, there'd be no question, no doubt. You'd want to be there. You'd do anything to be there. Nothing in the world could keep you from being there. Prayer is our chance at direct communication with God. It's our chance to come before Him, to meet with Him, to pour out our life before Him. Yet let's remember that our prayers aren't for God's benefit. God doesn't need our prayers; He wants them. Pause and think about that for a moment. God wants to hear your prayers. He wants to hear about your life, your sorrows, your joys, your fears. He wants you to completely yield and surrender to Him. But He doesn't want empty prayers, prayers lacking feeling, thought, and fervency. Jesus said in Matthew 6:7, "And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases." Yikes! That's convicting. When we're heaping up empty phrases just to say that we've "prayed," I think it's pretty safe to say that we've forgotten what prayer is. Charles Spurgeon once said, "He who prays without fervency does not pray at all. We cannot commune with God, who is a consuming fire, if there is no fire in our prayers. Many prayers fail of their errand because there is no faith in them. Prayers which are filled with doubt, are requests for refusal." That's pretty harsh. "He who prays without fervency does not pray at all." Ouch. Prayer is not something that can be faked, nor something to be taken lightly. It is a blessing to be taken part in "without ceasing", but not something that is to be tossed around callously and meaninglessly. Prayer is our gift of direct communication with God, a gift that is to be used often, yet also revered.Stay tuned for the final installment of Praying Without Ceasing: Impossible ... Right?