The title of this article may be a bit startling. It’s not intended to be a statement
about my lifestyle. I simply want
to discuss the reasons for seasons of prayerlessness in the lives of believers. We all have seasons – sometimes long
seasons – of prayerlessness. There
could be any number of reasons and perhaps if we are aware of them we can
address them and bring such seasons to a close.
When I don’t pray, one reason may be that I don’t feel
my need for God. That is, I’m
not consciously aware of my need for Him.
It’s not that I don’t know
that I need Him. I always have
that theological knowledge. I
would never be so foolish as to think that I don’t need the Lord. But there are times when my need for
Him – the breadth and depth of it – is not at the front of my mind. My circumstances are not always
pressing the awareness of that need upon me, and those are times when I may
find myself in a season of prayerlessness.
Have you ever noticed that when you are in a crisis no one
has to remind you to pray? You
don’t need to put it on your calendar and you don’t need to make it a matter of
strict discipline. Rather, you
sense your need for the Lord moment by moment and that sense of need draws you
to prayer spontaneously. This is
one of the reasons that a good old fashioned crisis can be a great blessing
from the Lord – it presses upon you an awareness of your need for Him and calls
you to confess that need in prayer.
So what should we do when we are not in crisis? Purposefully remind ourselves of our
need for the Lord. Here’s a
suggestion: make a list of all the ways that you need Him. Everything you can possibly think of.
“I need Him to hold the atoms of my body in existence by the
word of His power.”
“I need Him to keep my heart beating.”
“I need His sovereign power to perform the millions of
chemical reactions taking place in my body right now that enable my mind to
think, my digestive system to process food, etc.”
“I need Him to lead me not into temptation, but to deliver
me from the evil one.”
“I need Him to cause me to persevere in the faith.”
“I need Him to preserve my life from evil men.”
Make the list as exhaustive as you possibly can. Then take the list and pray it to the
Lord, asking Him to do those things.
Pray that He would perpetually impress upon your heart your great need
for Him. Jesus modeled this for us
when He taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread…forgive us our
debts…lead us not into temptation…”
We need Him for absolutely everything. And when our circumstances aren’t reminding us of that, we should remind ourselves.
To be continued…
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