1. I Must Maintain A Life of Prayer!
Why is it that none of us pray as we should anymore? We know that God is wanting to comfort and help us. We know that our burdens can all be lifted when we are shut in with Him. There is something deep within us that keeps calling us to prayer. It is the Holy Spirit saying, "Come." Come to the water that satisfies that soul thirst. Come to the Father who pities His children. Come to the Lord of life who promises to forgive every sin committed. Come to the One who refuses to condemn you, or forsake you, or hide from you.
God does not hide from us when we sin. Never! That is only our fear condemning our hearts. God did not hide in the garden when Adam and Eve sinned. He still came to them, calling and yearning for their fellowship and love. We ourselves hide - because of our guilt and condemnation. We can't imagine God still loving us, when we are so disobedient and ungrateful.
Come boldly to His throne of grace - even when you have sinned and failed. He forgives - instantly - those who repent with godly sorrow. You don't have to spend hours and days in remorse and guilt. You don't have to earn your way back into His good graces. You don't have to pretend a superficial kind of sorrow or feign tears. Go to the Father - bend your knees and open your heart - and cry out your agony and pain. Tell Him all about your failings - all about your struggles. Tell Him about your loneliness, about your feelings of isolation, about your fears, about your failures.
We try everything but prayer. We read books, looking for formulas and guidelines. We go to friends, to ministers, to counselors - looking everywhere for a word of comfort or advice. We seek mediators and forget the one Mediator who has the answer to everything.
We don't pray because it's so hard to do - most of the time. It's not hard when trouble comes unexpectedly. Cancer strikes - or a loved one dies suddenly of a heart attack. Then we are so broken in spirit, we cry and pray. That's all right. But we should be leaning on Jesus through the good and the bad. We should be getting our strength and help long before the crisis overwhelms us. We should be pouring out our hearts to Him every day of our lives.
No wonder we are so dry and empty. We have simply neglected the secret closet of prayer. It is not really dryness - it is lukewarmness. It is a growing coldness caused by drifting along, getting away from the holy place.
Nothing dispels dryness and emptiness quicker than an hour or two shut in with God. Putting off that date with God in His secret closed causes guilt. We know that our love for Him should lead us into his presence, but we busy ourselves in so many other things - time slips away, and God is left out. We throw in His direction a whole array of "thought prayers." But nothing can take the place of that secret closet - with the door shut - praying to the Father in that seclusion! That is the solution to every dry spell.
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