DEVOTIONAL                                 

 The Christian practice of  Prayer  : Part 1

                                                Prayer - its difficulties

  1. The Christian finds prayer difficult.   Luke's Gospel records that on one occasion the 
disciples of  the Lord came to Him with this  request, "Lord, teach us to  pray" (Luke 
11:1) It appears that they were impressed by the  way  they  found their Lord deep  in 
prayer with His Father.  They also wanted to be able to  experience such prayer  
fellowship but obviously discovered prayer to be very  difficult and so  sought His expert 
help and guidance.

   "Lord teach us to pray" is a request that ought to some from   the lips of every saint of 
God  continually throughout his  life. Prayer is undoubtedly the most important aspect of

 Christian activity and yet at the same time  it is the most  difficult. It is  easier to preach 
than to pray; it is easier  to give gifts for the mission field than it is to  pray for the 
mission field, it is easier to evangelise the unconverted than it is to pray  unceasingly for 
the unconverted; it is easier to read the Bible than to pray.

2 Why is prayer so difficult?   

It is quite natural that we find prayer  difficult. 
What  happens when a person is  praying? Here a child of the dust addressing the "God who dwells in a light unapproachable". When he is evangelising he is speaking to his equal, 
but when he is praying he is speaking to his Superior.  In prayer we are entering the 
presence of the all-Holy almighty God creator and sustained of  all things.  If anyone 
does not find that an awe - inspiring and  fearful thing, then he has not begun to 
understand the first thing  about prayer. Think of  Moses standing before the burning

 bush and  hearing the voice saying, "Do not come near; put of your shoes from your 
feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy  ground" (Exodus 3 5).

 That is what is happening to us when we seek  God in prayer; we are entering upon 
"holy ground". Consider also  the experience Isaiah had when he "saw the Lord sitting 
upon His throne" (Isaiah 6:I) Can anyone, realising that this is the God to whom they are 
speaking, say that prayer is one of the easiest of duties in the Christian life.

  In addition to that we must realise who we are before God. We are of the earth 
children of  the dust, regenerate but still containing indwelling sin. With Isaiah we must 
cry, "I am  a m an of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst  of a people of unclean lips" 
(Isaiah 6: 5). In agreement with the writer of Ecclesiates we  must say, "God is in  
eaven, we are upon earth" (Eccl 5: I).

 Not only are we plagued with the "flesh" but also we have an enemy whose one 
ambition is to separate  the saint from  his Lord.  Surely we  must expect Satan to be 
especially active in attacking the Christian in the realm of prayer.  For in

 prayer he sees his one-time victim joined in fellowship with his great Enemy.  The 
apostle Paul reminds us that we "are not contenting against flesh and blood, but against 
the principalities, against the  powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, 
against  the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6: I2).  
Have you ever considered the fact that all this is opposed to you every time  you kneel 
in prayer?  Do you now begin to understand why  it is that your complaint often "I know 
not how to pray as I  ought"?  Do you now understand why it is that you experience so 
such  discouragement in  prayer and that you find you can do almost anything else but 
pray? In the light of this we can understand  why the  Church prayer meeting is the most  
poorly attended  meeting within  the church!

                                3  Prayer - the most important Christian activity.

   Prayer must be regarded as the greatest and most important of all our Christian 
activities. We  can even say that it is more important than evangelism or any activity you 
care to name.   For in prayer a person is seeking audience with the King of kings, and  
Lord of lords. Nothing is as wonderful as that.  Man is indeed at his highest point when 
face to face with His Lord. There is  nothing to be compared with that. It is the very

 foretaste  of glory itself when in heaven we shall actually see Him face to face.

  Why has it been necessary to say all this? For the simple reason that we need to be  
made aware of the absolute necessity of taking great care with our prayer life.  Pray is

 not something that we can approach in a careless, light hearted or flippant attitude.   It 
demands the absolute attention, the most careful self examination and concentration.

 © Copyright Richard Lee: Please feel free to copy or distribute any of this material but 
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 Contact me on Richard@rllee.demon.co.uk