_edited_p.png)
I recently listened to two podcasts from Delighting in the Trinity, by Michael Reeves. (cited below). I was encouraged again by many things. Mr. Reeves mentions the helpfulness of “tools” but reminds us that if we have the wrong idea of what prayer is, no tool will help us. I want to remember to stress this at workshops. Pour Out Your Heart is a tool - a very helpful one I think. It can help you be more intentional and consistent and scriptural in your praying. But prayer is not a thing or activity or exercise that you need to get better at. Prayer is the response of a life that is dependent on God. And Pour Out Your Heart is not a magic formula that turns one into a prayer dependent person.
Calvin calls prayer “the chief exercise of faith.” Prayer is what people who trust in God do. They talk to God about their needs because He is their only hope. This, Reeses says, “means prayerlessness is practical atheism.”
He goes on to say, “A little sign . . .that really you’re self-dependent and not dependent on God, is you feel the weight of responsibility wearing you out.”
I was also very encouraged by the honesty with which Reeves addresses the common struggle we all have with feeling like we should be praying more. “. . . . everything, the world, the flesh, and the devil is going to conspire against prayer. . . This means the fact that you struggle in your prayer life doesn’t make you the odd one out.”
“Prayer is exercising faith believing [God’s] almost incredible promise that despite all the mess, all the coldness that I feel in myself, sinful as I am, right now, however I’m doing, I can come to Him and call Him Abba.”
“When you pray, don’t think about praying as an activity. Focus on the one you’re praying to. Remember who you're coming before.”
So he encourages us to pray:
“Father, I am a sinner, and so I struggle to pray. And so I come now to the friend of sinners and I ask, do a work in my heart by your spirit to awaken faith, and so awaken prayer, and praise, and sweetness of communion.”