The Principles of Prayer XLIV

 Luke 18:1, “Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart.”

There is enough evidence within Christendom to confirm that the cessation of prayer leads to all manner of ruin, among them losing heart. Throughout this journey called life, there are bound to be hills and valleys, there is bound to be rough terrain, there are bound to be obstacles and setbacks, and without a consistent and robust prayer life, losing heart becomes an ever-present possibility.

The longer one spends away from the presence of God, the longer they fail to pray, the possible becomes probable, the probable becomes likely, and the likely becomes inevitable. It may take a while to come to the point of depletion, absent joy, peace, or guidance, but once the lines of communication between us and God have been severed, if they are not reconnected, it’s only a matter of time.

Like brushing your teeth or combing your hair, prayer isn’t one of those things you do once and then move on with life, never to revisit it. It’s not the polio vaccine; it’s a daily practice that is beneficial beyond words for your spiritual man. Somehow, we always find the time to do the things we want to do, and find excuses for not doing the things we know we ought to be doing instead.

I didn’t go to the gym today because it felt like rain, and I didn’t want to get wet. The day before, I thought I was coming down with something, and I didn’t want to pass it on to anyone in case I was. The day before that, the tires on my car felt a bit flat, and you know what they say: better safe than sorry when it comes to such things.

How’d you get to the game without a car? The same individual who is making excuses for not going to the gym is asked. Well, I took three buses, hitched a ride, and walked the rest of the way. I wouldn’t have missed that game for the world.

It’s either we do everything we can to facilitate spending time in God’s presence, or we don’t. We either make time for Him or relegate him to household chores, wherein we’ll put it off to tomorrow for so many tomorrows that the dirty dishes in the sink start to grow their own ecosystem.

Well, I’ve always been of the mind that if God wants to say anything to me, He’ll reach out. That’s not the way it works. If you’re waiting for God to reach out without having established a relationship with Him, learned to hear His voice, and practiced the discipline of prayer, you’ll be waiting for a long time.

We always tend to point to the exceptions and not the rules, but they’re exceptions because they are extremely rare, whether the thief on the cross, or Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus, wherein he was blinded by the light and heard the voice of the One he was persecuting.

If you’re waiting for God to come and take your hand and say, “Would you like to spend some time with Me?” you’ll be waiting for a long time. It is our duty to knock, then He will open. It is our duty to ask, then He will give. It is our duty to desire more of Him, and He will make Himself available to us. Discipline is our responsibility. It is something we have agency over and something we can nurture and foster in our daily lives.

Luke 4:16, “So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.”

A custom is something you do repetitively and consistently. For something to become a custom to you, you must be disciplined in your actions and purposeful in implementing the schedule you set for yourself. Whether that’s carving out a non-negotiable hour every morning to spend time with God, or the twenty minutes it takes you to drive into work. It’s one thing to have a plan, it’s another to execute it.

Most people have plans to do all manner of things when the time is right. They plan on getting fit, they plan on getting healthy, they plan on cutting out the second helping of pecan pie, but they never get around to implementing their plans. Something always comes up. They’re too tired to go for a walk, they need to finish all the junk food in the cupboard before they clean up their diet, or they justify eating the whole pie in one sitting because wasting food is wrong and sinful, and they can’t bring themselves to be so irresponsible as to throw away a perfectly good pie.

For plans to be effective, they require action. If we’re waiting on the perfect time to start pursuing a life of prayer, where there is no job to go to, no bills to pay, no chores to do, and no distractions to be had, all we’ll be doing is waiting until we’re so close to death as to have family and friends come and say their final goodbyes, and even then the constant visitors will be what’s keeping us from going before God and spending time with Him.

The longer we put off the discipline of prayer, the more excuses we’re bound to come up with to delay it even further. It’s something the flesh fights, and finds ways for us to put off because it knows that the stronger our spiritual man becomes, the weaker its sway and influence over our daily actions will likewise become. The flesh isn’t looking out for your best interest; it’s looking out for its own interest. It doesn’t want to die, it doesn’t want to be mortified, and it doesn’t want to give up the reins. It will fight tooth and nail to retain what little influence it has over us because that is the nature of flesh.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.