Did You Think to Pray?

When was the last time you prayed? What were the circumstances? What did you pray about? Where were you? Who were you with? Why did you pray? What about the time before that? Would you say that you pray too often or not often enough?

When you face difficult circumstances, what is the first thing you do? When you are grieving, where do you seek comfort?

When things are going well, how often is your first instinct to go to God in prayer and thank Him? I don't mean publicly stating "Thank you, God!" or pointing to heaven as you round the bases after hitting a home run. How often do you go in private prayer to God, when no one else is around, and spend time thanking Him?

I will confess that I don't pray nearly often enough. When I face difficult circumstances, I want to be comforted by friends and family. When life is great, I don't instinctively go to God in prayer and praise Him. This is something I am seeking to change. I want to develop a habit of going to God in prayer in everything. I want to build a relationship with Him so intimate that I can't wait to talk to Him about what I'm struggling with, celebrating, and grieving.

Here is one thing that Thomas a Kempis had to say on behalf of the Lord about prayer:

My son, I am the Lord who sends comfort in time of tribulation. Come, therefore, to Me when it is not well with you. What hinders you most is that you turn yourself to Me too slowly; before you pray heartily to Me you seek many other comforts, and refresh your spirit in outward things. And so it comes about that all that you do helps little, until you can behold and see that I am He who sends comfort to all who faithfully call to Me, and that without Me there can be no profitable counsel or perfect remedy.

How often I seek many other comforts before I pray heartily to God. How often I seek to refresh my spirit in outward things. How often I do so even knowing how empty those things are and how little they will avail me.

This hymn by Mary A. Kidder, with music by William O. Perkins, was written in 1876 and it helps me to remember how many circumstances there are in which I fail to pray. It helps me to see the ways in which I can insert prayer into those situations. And the simple question, oft repeated in these verses, cuts to the heart of the issue: "Did you think to pray?"

Not "Did you pray?" Not "Did you feel like praying?" But "Did you think to pray?" Did the thought of taking this to God even cross my mind? As I look back over my day, I can ask this question about every circumstance. Every moment of my day in which I had an opportunity to pray. Every moment of temptation. Every moment of anger. Every moment of trials and sorrow. Did the presence of God loom large in my mind such that I thought to pray?

I want to live a life in which the question is "When didn't I think to pray?" I want to live a life where my first thought in any circumstance is to go to God to converse about it. I hope that you are interested in seeking that kind of relationship with Him as well.

Did You Think to Pray?

Ere you left your room this morning,

Did you think to pray?

In the name of Christ our Savior,

Did you sue for loving favor,

As a shield today?

O how praying rests the weary!

Prayer will change the night to day;

So when life seems dark and dreary,

Don't forget to pray.

When you met with great temptation,

Did you think to pray?

By His dying love and merit,

Did you claim the Holy Spirit

As your guide and stay?

When your heart was filled with anger,

Did you think to pray?

Did you plead for grace, my brother,

That you might forgive another

Who had crossed your way?

When sore trials came upon you,

Did you think to pray?

When your soul was bowed in sorrow,

Balm of Gilead did you borrow

At the gates of day?

(Public Domain)

More Holiness Give Me

In 1873, Philip P. Bliss wrote a hymn that he simply entitled "My Prayer." How deeply each of us needs to pray this prayer that Mr. Bliss wrote 143 years ago. I know that I struggle to pray this hymn. I struggle to ask God for some of these things, and I know that this struggle is with my own sinful heart. Why don't I want to pray some of these things? Because I want to keep myself on the throne of my heart. I pray pointless prayers because I don't want to pray purposeful ones. I pray easy prayers because I don't want to pray difficult ones. I pray worthless prayers because I don't want to pray sanctifying ones.

I don't want to pray for God to put me through suffering. I don't want to pray for God to give me gratitude in my suffering. When I am in the midst of suffering, the last thing I want to pray for is that God would make me grateful for it. I suspect that I'm not alone in that. I suspect that the first inclination of your heart is like mine. We want to say to God, "Why?" We want to, as Paul Tripp likes to say, "Bring God into the court of our judgment, and judge Him as less than good." But that's not what scripture tells us to do:

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phil 4:6-7, NASB)

We sing a lot of hymns and other songs without thinking about the words we are singing. We get emotionally tied up in the music and we forget that these words are being lifted up to God. When we sing "Holiness is what I long for," do we really mean that? When we cry out to God, "Be Thou my vision," do we truly long for Him to take away everything else important to us if it means that we will be nearer to Him? When we pray "Thy will be done," do we live out our week as instruments of His will being done here on earth as it is in heaven? When we sing "and You tell me that You're pleased," do we consider whether our thoughts, words, and actions in the past week have actually pleased God? When we sing "I believe that Jesus Christ is Lord," do we live and think on a moment-by-moment basis as though Jesus Christ is Lord of our hearts?

I know I don't. I know that my heart is sinful, selfish, and rotten to the core. I know that I can't sing some of those songs in good faith sometimes. Sometimes I get so busy bringing God into the court of my judgment that I forget that I am already standing in His. I am standing in His courtroom and I have already been found guilty. And yet, this same God, whom I have been so hasty to condemn in my own heart at times, has not condemned me. Instead, He has adopted me as His son and promised me an inheritance as a co-heir with Christ. And He loves me too much to leave me in this sinful, selfish, rotten state in which he has found me. He is transforming me into the likeness of His Son, and that means cutting out my evil heart, refining me from my impurities, imparting to me His holiness. Just as he said to the woman caught in adultery, He tells me, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more." (Jn 8:11, NKJV)

Will you join with me in praying this hymn to God this week, this month, this year? What about this minute? Will you? It's not a question of whether we can or not. In fact, while even in the midst of the hardest difficulties, there is nothing that can ever make it impossible to say no to sin, here there isn't even anything that can make it difficult, other than our own sinful hearts. It is merely a question of making a decision to align our will with that of our Father.

As you pray this prayer, meditate on the requests. Consider what each of these requests will look like in your own life, recognizing that God will do far more than we could ever imagine to transform us and sanctify us. I have included after each request a scripture reference that you might meditate on. Maybe print out the words and scripture references and pray and meditate on one each day for the next 24 days. However you pray this prayer, please also pray for me as I pray this prayer. And feel free to email me and ask me (and challenge me) to pray for you as you pray this prayer. God is calling us higher than we want to go, but He does not call us alone. He is with us, and He has given us a community to walk alongside on this journey.

More Holiness Give Me

More holiness give me (1 Th 3:11-13), more strivings within (Heb 12:4-5).
More patience in suffering (Jas 1:2-4), more sorrow for sin (2 Cor 7:10-11).
More faith in my Savior (Mt 14:30-31), more sense of His care (Lk 12:22-28).
More joy in His service (Acts 5:40-42), more purpose in prayer (Mt 6:5-15).

More gratitude give me (Phil 4:6-7), more trust in the Lord (Pr 3:5-7).
More zeal for His glory (1 Pet 4:7-11), more hope in His Word (Ps 130).
More tears for His sorrows (Is 53:3-4), more pain at His grief (Eph 4:30-32).
More meekness in trial (1 Pet 2:21-24), more praise for relief (2 Sa 22:2-7).

More purity give me (1 Jn 3:1-3), more strength to o’ercome (Is 40:28-31),
More freedom from earth-stains (1 Jn 1:5-10), more longings for home (Rom 8:18-25).
More fit for the kingdom (Lk 9:57-62), more useful I’d be (2 Ti 2:19-23),
More blessèd and holy (Rev 20:5-6), more, Savior, like Thee (Phil 2:1-11).

(Public Domain)