No Christian doubts that prayer is a great blessing and benefit, a privilege and a power source. But do we pray as much as would seem to be appropriate for such a boon? Or is our prayer life lagging a bit behind? Today’s excerpt is from our book, If Men Will Pray. You’ll find it on pages 7 and 8:
“Let’s face it: Prayer is not a Christian man’s greatest strength. Not that we have all that many strengths anyway, but prayer is definitely not one of them.
“We know that Paul commands us to pray without ceasing, and to pray about everything. But men today – as probably in Paul’s day – are so far from that ideal that they don’t really take that exhortation seriously. They can’t see themselves praying like this, and so they conclude Paul’s probably just speaking in hyperbole here. His instruction is more a bit of pious rhetoric than a serious call to a prayer-full life.
“But the fact is, prayer is to our spiritual lives as breathing is to our physical lives. In order to participate in physical existence, we have to breathe. Breathing is so fundamental to being that we must do it continually. We do it so continually in fact that, most of the time, we don’t even think about it. When we have trouble breathing, or can’t catch our breath, we don’t just not breathe; rather, we redouble our efforts to breathe, because we know that not to breathe is not to exist. Breathing is not so much something we do as something we are. Men exist, so men breathe.“Prayer is to our spiritual lives as breathing is to our physical lives. If you’re not breathing, you’re dead. If you’re not praying…”
For reflection or discussion
1. How would you rate the state of your prayer life at this time?
2. Why should we all want to pray more than we currently do?
Improving our prayer lives is something every Christian should seek to do. As we read through our book, If Men Will Pray, why not find a prayer partner to listen with you and discuss what you’re hearing? Perhaps the two of you could even agree to work harder at getting the most out of this great privilege and benefit. You can order copies of If Men Will Pray by going to The Ailbe Bookstore.
T. M. Moore
