The Weekly Epistle 11/2/22

Hi Church Family,
 
Prayer is work. Prayer is hard work. Truth is prayer might be one of the hardest things to do.
The Apostle Paul says of Epaphras that, “He is always wrestling in prayer for you” (Colossians
4:12). In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed so intensely he sweat blood.
If you struggle in your prayer life, then you are not alone. Many of the Psalmists are honest
about the real struggle of prayer. In Psalm 10 it begins by asking, “Why, O Lord, do you stand
far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” What honesty! Prayer is often a struggle 
because we don’t always sense His presence.
 
We certainly have times when we know His presence is real and that our communion with Him
is intimate. But this is not always the case. When that happens, we struggle in our prayers.
J.I. Packer summed up prayer by saying this, “Prayer is finding our way through duty to delight.”
So, even in those difficult times when it feels more of a duty than a delight, we are to persist in
praying. And my personal experience has been that when continue with the discipline of prayer
that there will be those times of sweetness in our communion with God.
 
I have learned to feel less guilty over my prayer life and instead see it as a journey. It might just
be me but, comparing myself to those who woke up at 4:00 AM and prayed for two hours, only
left me discouraged about my prayer life. It didn’t motivate me to greater communion with God.
The problem wasn’t with the saints whose practice was to pray early and long, but with my own
comparison.
 
To speak of prayer as a journey suggests that we will never arrive in this perfect communion
with God through prayer. That means we continue to grow in our prayer life while
acknowledging that the deeper satisfactions we long for will never be completely fulfilled this
side of heaven.
 
My word to you is persist in prayer- even when you may not feel like it. Prayer helps us endure.
Like the disciples dare to ask, “Jesus, teach me to pray.” It isn’t about finding the right
technique or duplicating what others have done but, recognize it as hard work. It is all about
talking with God. God has spoken to us through His Word and prayer is continuing that
conversation with Him.
 
Tim Keller put it this way, “Prayer is awe, intimacy, struggle, yet the way to reality. There is
nothing more important, or harder, or richer, or more life-altering. There is absolutely nothing so
great as prayer.”
 
Church, pray!
 
Fellow prayer struggler, 
Pastor Brian