How is your praying?

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. (Rom 8:26)

Have you ever been slapped in the face? The shock and the sting command your attention And, if the one doing the slapping is God. we had better be alert to what he is trying to say to us.

Such is often the case with me and prayer. I often strive to grapple with and get my arms around prayer, but I usually fall woefully short. Additionally, I am keenly aware of the prayerlessness of my heart and life. Even when the quantity and frequency of praying grows, the depth and the urgency often don't. So when I read the following quote by Spurgeon, the slap of God was severe.

A prayerless soul is a Christless soul.

Let those words sink in before you explain them away or self-congratulate on your awesome prayer life. What if everything we did without prayer was something we did without Christ? What if the depth and frequency of our praying was a barometer of our true devotion to Christ? What if the Bible's admonition to pray without ceasing was actually meant to be taken seriously?

I'm sharing these thoughts as my own self-examination. I am continually grateful for the promise of Rom 8:26. So even as my anemic prayers are offered to God, the Spirit is interceding for me. And above all, there is grace. We are not saved by our praying. We are saved by the shed blood of Christ graciously applied to our to sins.

Here is a closing thought from Spurgeon:

Prayer is the lisping of the believing infant, the shout of the fighting believer, the requiem of the dying saint falling asleep in Jesus. It is the breath, the watchword, the comfort, the strength, the honour of a Christian.

I now send forth this post with a deep sense of its many defects; but with an earnest prayer that it may do some good. (JC Ryle)

To God Alone be the Glory