march orphan photos

the necessity of prayer

I've recently begun reading Tim Keller's Prayer because... I struggle a lot with prayer. I lack the discipline, desire, passion, joy, and consistency.

The first chapter, on the necessity of prayer, begins with an analogy about a pill: imagine that you have a lethal condition and you must take a pill every night before you sleep or else you die within hours. There's no way you're going to forget about it. In the same way, that's how badly we need to pray; if we don't pray, we're not going to make it.

That paints a good picture of why prayer is needed, but if it's really that important, why don't we feel the urgent need?  I think two possible reasons are:

1. Things are going well, so we don't feel the need for God.
2. Things are going badly, so we don't believe God is good or capable of helping. 

Oh, sin, you make it so hard to have faith.  I find myself neglecting to pray because of the first category much more often, where I tend to forget about my dependence on God because it seems like "I got it all together."

Personal reflection/application:

1. Even when things are "good," remember that there is always a battle with sin. I know I often turn a blind eye to my sin because it's more comfortable to not think about it. Prayer is needed to both reveal sin and to fight it. 
2. Be thankful for seasons of blessedness. It's never a question of if trials will come, but rather when. 
3. Something I've enjoyed learning over the past few years is how to be honest with God in prayer. This includes telling Him that I don't have the desire to pray as I should, and that I want to have that desire. Or even that I want to want that desire. 
4. Be disciplined in praying regularly.

Maroon 5 - Misery (Acoustic Version)

testimony shame

I'm sure most of us who have grown up in the church have, at some point, thought about "testimony envy." This is where we kind of wish we had a more dramatic and radical conversion story to share with our nonbelieving friends to shock them into accepting the gospel. Very silly. Let us remember that every conversion is a miracle and that God was gracious to save us (or at least protect us) at a young age.

But what about... "testimony shame?" Where you don't want to talk about the shameful things you've done, especially when these things happened after accepting Christ.  It's super easy to say, "I did all these terrible things because I wasn't saved." It's embarrassing to say, "I messed up big time even though I have been saved." You tell yourself that you should have done better, known better, been better.

Well thankfully (thankfully!) life is not about us and what we accomplish and achieve or how well we keep the commandments and live a good life. No, it's about God and God's work and God's love and grace and mercy towards us. What a relief that we do not have to bear the burden of attaining perfection (Gal 3:3). God, who loved us and sent His only son for us when we were yet sinners, still loves us passionately despite our failures.

For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, 'Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people...'

Jeremiah 7:22-23