The living human body always breathes, and without breathing oxygenated air it dies. What happens when the air has too little oxygen in it? Human body functions are curtailed. Funny things happen. On her last trip with me across country, my wife had to be accommodated by avoidance of high mountains. The air was too light. She felt faint, even a bit disoriented. The human soul also breathes. Without that praying of faith it languishes without energy – as a body languishes when it is not exercised, not getting air and water, tends to lose its tone and strength. In following analogy, there are marked differences in spiritual decline from those that are physical, but there are interesting and persuasive comparisons between the mystery and the known.
We ask about the differences between a non-moral animal and a person. One difference is that an animal doesn’t pray. Men and women pray, whether meaningfully or without meaning. Those with a sense of the presence of God are likely to pray with logical meaning. For others, prayer becomes a ruse rather than reality. When troubled, man seems to fall to some form of prayer, even when efficacy is not an issue. Nearly every news report of floods, fires, wars includes references to prayer, even by unbelievers. The skeptic, Will Durant, admitted praying praise when he received word his daughter was well after enduring a difficult pregnancy to birthing.
When a person throws out the rope of prayer, is he trying to pull the shore to self, or is he trying to get self to shore? Those who try to pull the shore to themselves expect God to come their way. These persons turn away from speak Lord thy servant heareth, into listen Lord thy servant speaketh. Prayer is conversation with God that seems one-sided. The prayerful should go to him repeatedly with the understanding that prayer raises to God our deepest questions, concerns, needs. Prayer is not presumption. It is not used up in several acts of it. There is prevailing mutuality. Constancy in prayer includes active waiting for the will of the addressed authority figure. Answers are gained in whatever follows. Prayers should be offered for amendment.
God’s presence is important to prayer, as some feature of presence is important to any communication between persons. To gain the presence of God, one must follow the pattern suggested to gain that presence. That is done through pardon, which is the forgiveness of God for sin and sins; through positional-standing, as a child of God through the redemption of Christ; and, through promises offered in abundance throughout Scripture. Prayer has a scent that rises to God, and a savor he finds irresistible. He has decided that prayer is a constant. We need to adopt its constancy. The development of a prayer-like spirit is the best context for all matters.
Always – is a threatening word in any language, and a force in Scripture. There are matters that always apply for God. They never let up, and are related to issues on which we should never let up. They persist, and literally demand our attention and obligation. The poor are always with us, Jesus said. So we are to do something about poverty. We are always to be taken by the love of our life. (Proverbs 5:9) We are always to set the Lord before us. (Psalm 16:8) The Apostle Paul enjoyed using the word always in his letters, sometimes relating it to prayer. As one must always breathe to oxygenate natural life, he or she must always pray to fire-up spiritual life. From the time I made commitment to Christ, I believed in prayer. It was many years before I learned that it was always an applied attitude that would be satisfying. It would take time factors out of the equation of my prayer experience. Peace is part of an unending prayer constancy. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020