PRAYING TILL WE TRULY "PRAY"
Posted by: prophetic <prophetic@...>
"Praying Till We PRAY"
-by A.W. Tozer.
Dr. Moody Stuart, a great praying man of a past generation,
once drew up a set of rules to guide him in his prayers.
Among these rules is this one: "Pray till you pray."
The difference between praying till you quit and praying till
you pray is illustrated by the American evangelist John
Wesley Lee. He often likened a season of prayer to a
church service, and insisted that many of us close the
meeting before the service is over. He confessed that once
he arose too soon from a prayer session and started down
the street to take care of some pressing business. He had
only gone a short distance when an inner voice reproached
him. "Son," the voice seemed to say, "did you not
pronounce the benediction before the meeting was ended?"
He understood, and at once hurried back to the place of
prayer where he tarried till the burden lifted and the
blessing came down.
The habit of breaking off our prayers before we have truly
prayed is as common as it is unfortunate. Often the last
ten minutes may mean more to us than the first half hour,
because we must spend a long time getting into the
proper mood to pray effectively. We may need to struggle
with our thoughts to draw them in from where they have
been scattered through the multitude of distractions that
result from the task of living in a disordered world.
Here, as elsewhere in spiritual matters, we must be sure
to distinguish the ideal from the real. Ideally we should be
living moment-by-moment in a state of such perfect union
with God that no special preparation is necessary. But
actually there are few who can honestly say that this is
their experience. Candor will compel most of us to admit
that we often experience a struggle before we can escape
from the emotional alienation and sense of unreality that
sometimes settle over us as a sort of prevailing mood.
Whatever a dreamy idealism may say, we are forced to
deal with things down on the level of practical reality. If
when we come to prayer our hearts feel dull and
unspiritual, we should not try to argue ourselves out of it.
Rather, we should admit it frankly and pray our way
through. Some Christians smile at the thought of
"praying through," but something of the same idea is
found in the writings of practically every great praying
saint from Daniel to the present day. We cannot afford to
stop praying till we have actually prayed.
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