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:
- Things are going well, so we don't feel the need for God.
- 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:
- 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.
- Be thankful for seasons of blessedness. It's never a question of if trials will come, but rather when.
- 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.
- Be disciplined in praying regularly.
