Feeling rundown? How’s your prayer life? It’s a pretty easy indicator to the status of our spiritual life.
I like this quote from Stanley Jones:
When prayer fades out, power fades out. We are as spiritual as we are prayerful; no more, no less.
E. Stanley Jones, Conversion
The Apostle Paul wrote this to the believers in Philippi:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
Philippians 4:6 NIV
When we fail to give our requests, with thanksgiving, to God, our anxiety level rises. Why? Because we quickly learn we can’t handle life on our own, even though we’re doing everything in our own power to prove otherwise.
Prayer takes humility and submission. Pride and self-confidence push prayer aside or leads us to pray out of wrong motives. James writes:
When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
James 4:3
Once the power fades, our ability to stand strong in the face of attacks and adversity weakens. To find restoration and strength, we must go back to God in prayer—and most likely at this stage, on our knees.
Prayer is our recognition of our need for God. He’s not dumb. He already knows all our needs before we ask, but he’s waiting for the asking. He wants to know we need him, and when we show him we do, he responds and fills up our tank with the power of his Spirit and renewed confidence, not in self, but in him.
In everything, pray. With thanksgiving, pray. To discover his power, pray.
Grace and Peace