Prayer is Encouraging
Let me read a longish passage from Andrew Murray’s book With Christ in the School of Prayer.
“Christians often complain that private prayer is not what it should be. They feel weak and sinful; the heart is cold and dark; it is as if they have so little to pray for, and in that little, they have no faith or joy. They are discouraged and kept from prayer by the thought that they cannot come to the Father as they should or as they wish. Child of God, listen to your Teacher (Jesus). He tells you that when you go to private prayer, your first thought must be: The Father who is in secret; the Father waits for me there. If your heart is cold and prayerless, you even more urgently must go into the presence of the loving Father… Do not think of how little you have to bring to God but of how much He wants to give to you. Just place yourself before Him and look up into His face; think of His love – His wonderful, tender, pitying love… Father’s loving heart will give light and warmth to yours. Oh, do what Jesus says: Just shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. Isn’t it wonderful to be able to go alone to God, the infinite God, and then to look up and say, “My Father!”
God Wants To Talk With You
I said yesterday that prayer is engaging with God. And when you take the time to engage with God, He encourages you! You realise again in that place that God loves me, He wants me, He knows me, He is glad to have me here in this world! And that is the encouragement that we all need.
I suppose there’s nothing more disheartening than trying to have a conversation with somebody who you know doesn’t want to be having the conversation! And yet many of us approach God this way. We think He has better things to do. That He’s looking at His watch the whole time we’re talking.
We need to get out of that. We need to go into our times of prayer looking to engage with the God who is our encouraging and loving Father!!!
Friends, God expects us to pray, not because it makes us good little religious people, but because He loves us! And he longs for a close relationship with us!
God Wants to Lift Your Spirit
You can pray in a very mechanical way, disengaged from God, trying to get through your list. Or you can get into His presence as a child of God! You can sit down and feast with him! You can drink in the words in His Bible! You can sing His praise with gladness in your moments with Him.
That’s prayer.
And it will leave you encouraged and comforted, every time.
