Thursday, August 17, 2006

Lessons from the Woodshed—Prayerlessness

Looking back on my recent time in the woodshed, the whipping reached a crescendo during the message by Priscilla Shirer at the Precept National Women’s Convention. Shirer’s message was on prayer, and her text was Matthew 6:6: But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

Shirer began her message discussing the power of prayer and the general need for prayer. Then it got personal. Here’s what I wrote in my notes: If you’re not praying, it’s an issue of what you love the most. You do what you love. You must understand prayer is NECESSARY for your life. Prayerlessness is the first sign of pride. = Not depending on God.

Shirer provided an excellent illustration from her life. For a number of weeks in a row, she had to go to her doctor's office for blood work. There was a gated parking area that required payment of a $3 fee to enter the lot. Around the third week, as Shirer pulled into the parking area, she looked in her review mirror and saw a McDonald’s across the street. Tired of paying the $3 fee, she backed out, drove across the street, and parked her car behind McDonald’s. When she returned to the McDonald’s parking lot after her appointment, her car was gone. It had been towed. Her telling of the story was much funnier and more entertaining than I can make it here, but as you probably have anticipated by now, it cost her more than $150 to get her car back, when she could have paid a mere $3 to park.

Shier’s point was that in making prayer a priority, it may cost you a little now, but it will cost you a whole lot more if you don’t make it a priority. To write an “ouch” here would be a gross understatement. Shirer’s entire message on prayer was excellent, but this portion of it brought a flood of conviction upon me. At the end of the message, I was very thankful that I had let my hair grow out because as my bent my head over and repented and wept, my mane provided a measure of privacy that I would not have had a year ago. (It’s strange, the things you think of in times of distress.)

I have written about prayer here before, and I have been praying for some time that God would teach me to pray and make me a woman of prayer. It’s not that I don’t pray, but I haven’t loved prayer the way I love studying the Bible. I haven’t looked forward to praying. I haven’t searched out time to spend with God listening to Him. I haven’t seized opportunities to pray such as when I lay down with my daughter to get her to sleep at night or when I’m alone in my car. I have prayed, but prayer has not been a priority.

Later that evening, as I was talking to my friend about the conviction brought on by Shirer’s message, I told her that in essence *I* had paid the $150 towing/impounding fee when I could have just paid the $3 parking fee. She encouraged me by telling me to be thankful for learning the lesson now rather than later.

Indeed I am thankful for this particular lesson from the woodshed. And I am thankful that God is full of grace and mercy and that His actions are not contingent on my prayers, but, rather, He ordains my prayers to accomplish and to allow me to participate in His purposes. To Him be the glory.

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