August 25, 2014 (click name to go to original post)
As people we know that it is often wise to resist various urges that we have. We can keep ourselves out of trouble by resisting the urge to say something when we are offended. We can prevent various health issues by resisting urges to overeat or (routinely) eat unhealthy foods. We can steer clear from financial debt by resisting the urge to buy something on impulse. We can almost develop a reflex resistance in this fallen world replete with potholes along with our own personal proclivity towards unhealthy behavior. This can be good for us (and others).
However, there is one urge that you should never resist. This area is prayer. I believe it was Martyn Lloyd-Jones whom I first read who said, “Never resist any urge to pray.” That is great advice without much need for explanation. But let me point out a couple of reasons why.
The urge to pray does not come from your flesh or the devil, but from God. It is God who is urging and drawing his children to pray. He desires communion with his people. We can be confident that the urge to pray is an urgent call from God to lay our pride down and come to him with the sweet joys of communion with the Triune God. In prayer we come to confess our sin, claim God’s promises, bath in Christ’s blood, and refresh our souls. As Calvin said, prayer is climbing up into the lap of our Father. Why should we ever resist such an urge?
Further, the work of prayer is secret. In other words, you and I have no idea about how God uses our prayers. Occasionally God will pull back the secrecy of his providence and let us see. We see how we have been burdened for a particular person during the day. We pray for them. Then hours or days later they tell us what was happening at or around that time. God uses prayer. He does so very secretly. Therefore, we are not to resist the urge to pray but heartily enter into it with confidence that God will use it.
Finally, prayer is commanded. God tells us to pray. Even if we don’t feel like praying we should know that One far more wise than us has bidden us to pray without ceasing (1 Thes. 5:17
). He has called us to live a life devoted to prayer (Col. 4:2).Why would he do such a thing? It is so that we would find ourselves growing in our dependence upon God. It is this dependence that produces joy because we realize God’s greatness, goodness, and grace in our lives. Prayer is for God in the sense that it brings him glory, but prayer is also for us in the sense that it brings us to see God as our chief joy.
God is faithful to urge us to pray. He does this the first moment of spiritual life when he converts us to Christ; and he does this throughout our Christian lives. Let us be a people who never, ever, resist the urge to pray. After all, we know the urge is from God, to be used by God, accordance with his commands for our good.
As people we know that it is often wise to resist various urges that we have. We can keep ourselves out of trouble by resisting the urge to say something when we are offended. We can prevent various health issues by resisting urges to overeat or (routinely) eat unhealthy foods. We can steer clear from financial debt by resisting the urge to buy something on impulse. We can almost develop a reflex resistance in this fallen world replete with potholes along with our own personal proclivity towards unhealthy behavior. This can be good for us (and others).
However, there is one urge that you should never resist. This area is prayer. I believe it was Martyn Lloyd-Jones whom I first read who said, “Never resist any urge to pray.” That is great advice without much need for explanation. But let me point out a couple of reasons why.
The urge to pray does not come from your flesh or the devil, but from God. It is God who is urging and drawing his children to pray. He desires communion with his people. We can be confident that the urge to pray is an urgent call from God to lay our pride down and come to him with the sweet joys of communion with the Triune God. In prayer we come to confess our sin, claim God’s promises, bath in Christ’s blood, and refresh our souls. As Calvin said, prayer is climbing up into the lap of our Father. Why should we ever resist such an urge?
Further, the work of prayer is secret. In other words, you and I have no idea about how God uses our prayers. Occasionally God will pull back the secrecy of his providence and let us see. We see how we have been burdened for a particular person during the day. We pray for them. Then hours or days later they tell us what was happening at or around that time. God uses prayer. He does so very secretly. Therefore, we are not to resist the urge to pray but heartily enter into it with confidence that God will use it.
Finally, prayer is commanded. God tells us to pray. Even if we don’t feel like praying we should know that One far more wise than us has bidden us to pray without ceasing (1 Thes. 5:17
). He has called us to live a life devoted to prayer (Col. 4:2).Why would he do such a thing? It is so that we would find ourselves growing in our dependence upon God. It is this dependence that produces joy because we realize God’s greatness, goodness, and grace in our lives. Prayer is for God in the sense that it brings him glory, but prayer is also for us in the sense that it brings us to see God as our chief joy.God is faithful to urge us to pray. He does this the first moment of spiritual life when he converts us to Christ; and he does this throughout our Christian lives. Let us be a people who never, ever, resist the urge to pray. After all, we know the urge is from God, to be used by God, accordance with his commands for our good.
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