To be faithful in prayer has been a lifelong challenge for me. Take a large quantity of self-sufficiency, sweeten with a generally good life, add in a few drops of doubt and distraction, and cook continually in my ‘busy-bake’ oven, and you’ve got a great recipe for prayer-deficient Christianity.
One of the things I have done over the past couple of years to battle prayerlessness is to read regularly on prayer.
I’m reading a book by C.S. Lewis right now called Letters to Malcom – Chiefly on Prayer (A word of caution: While he was a Christian, Lewis never claimed to be a theologian, and much about this book I would not recommend – it is simply his personal reflections, not carefully thought out theology. If you’re looking for a great book to stir you with sound doctrine on prayer, consider Charles Spurgeon, collection of sermons, Prayer.)
But Lewis does say something that really hit me the other day:
“The world was made partly that there might be prayer” (p. 56)
As we see in Genesis 1 and 2, God created the world – and us in it – for his glory. But God created man to glorify him in unique ways, none more significant than that we were created to have fellowship with him and be an integral part of his purposes on this earth. In one sense, prayer is a way we carry out that mandate – we relate to God as he has revealed himself in his word, and we ask him to extend his rule and power through us and around us – for his glory.
Do you wrestle with questions about how God can be completely sovereign and yet answer prayer? Do you wonder at times if prayer is just talking to the air? Lewis reminds us that prayer isn’t a ‘peripheral add-on’ to God’s plan for all things, it is hardwired into the way he made things to be.
So as you pray this week, whether that is in your prayer closet on your knees, or in your car offering ‘quick-reference’ petitions to God, look around you at the world. It was made partly that there might be prayer.
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