April 8

The life of prayer does not come readily to the converted. The natural man continues to flex his muscle and his inclination is not toward devotion to the Lord or meditation upon His Word or immersion in the activity of prayer. The newly converted man has bigger fish to fry.

The “responsibilities” of life still compel him to devote the preponderance of his time to the pursuit of the things he has been trained to endeavor to attain. Now that he is born again, he may be thankful for the place the Lord has secured for him in heaven, but he believes he still must strive for his place on earth.

When he has gone through trials, however, as David did in the pursuit of the goal the Lord set before him—that of being King of Israel—he comes, to the same conclusion David reached. That is, nothing of value can be achieved without heartfelt, constant prayer. As David said it in Psalm 27:4, “ One thing have I asked of the Lord, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord (in His presence) for all the days of my life, that I may see His beauty and meditate upon His Word.”

It is David’s conclusion that without prayer, life is futile. We who know the presence of the Holy Spirit within us must allow Him to turn our hearts toward this worthy pursuit in fullness of surrender to the Lord and King who longs to hear our voice. Our natural man may resist at the onset. Our mind may drift off to temporal thoughts and we may be required to engage in life’s mundane pursuits, but if we will speak to Him, He will speak to us, and prayer will be our portion.