Praying or Fainting?

On Wednesday evenings, we hold a prayer meeting at our church building.  Last night was a special blessing.  It is wonderful to gather with fellow Christians to praise God, intercede for others, and lay petitions at His feet.  What made the time more special still was the silence.  There is no "awkward silence" when we approach the throne of God.  It is in those times of silence when God often speaks because we have given Him permission by waiting on Him, without demands or selfish expectations.  No one enjoys a relationship that is based upon someone always wanting something:  the only time they contact you is when they want you to do or give something to them.  I think our relationship with God can be like that.  We tend to pray when we want something.  But just like you appreciate friends who love and simply enjoy spending time you, so we ought to approach God to spend time with Him - not just to achieve our ends.  God is gracious and good, delighting in us even when we are shortsighted and self-centered.  But He has a special blessing for those who delight in Him, drawing near with expectant hearts of faith to spend time with Him because we love Him too.

With the historically low turnout to prayer meetings in churches these days, it is obvious people really do not comprehend prayer.  It is true one should have a "prayer closet," or personal time of prayer on a regular basis.  Yet should the opportunity be provided to meet and share a meal with Jesus in bodily form on a weeknight (for free!), I would imagine the whole church would turn up and invite friends.  But when we talk about corporate prayer - entering into His throne room of grace with other like-minded believers - the draw is not the same.  This is a curious thing.  People will attend a prayer meeting once or twice and never come back.  Why?  Perhaps they had an expectation that was not met.  Perhaps other things in their lives are more important.  Maybe they don't believe it is making a difference.  Or their son has soccer training on those days!  Whatever the reasons, without prayer each of us - and therefore the church of God of which we are each a necessary part - will grow increasingly weak as we drift from our Saviour.

G. Campbell Morgan had some profound remarks on prayer in his sermon titled, "Prayer or Fainting."  He suggests we are doing one or the other:  either we are praying, or we are fainting.  He says in the sermon:

We may now consider our Lord's philosophy of life.  He puts these two things into opposition (Luke 18:1).  He declares in effect that this is the alternative before every one of us, to pray or to faint.  There is no suggestion of a middle course...Prayer is the opposite of fainting.  Fainting is a sudden sense of inability and helplessness, the cessation of activity, weariness which is almost, and ultimately is death.  Pray, and do no faint.  To pray is to have the vision clear, the virtue mighty, the victory assured. (The Westminster Pulpit, Volume 3, Morgan, pg. 55-56)

Morgan continues:

The prayer life does not consist of perpetual repetition of petitions.  The prayer life consists of life that is always upward, and onward, and Godward.  The passion of the heart is for the Kingdom of God; the devotion of the mind is to His will; the attitude of the spirit is conformity thereto; and the higher we climb in the realm of prayer, the more unceasing will prayer be, and the fewer will be the petitions.  It is the opposite of importunity that is taught here.  The thought that Jesus gave of God is that of one compassionate, just, mighty, quick to respond to the forward wish of the weakest soul., so that in the midst of the stress and strain and struggle there need be no fainting. (Ibid., 58)

He concludes:

"They ought always to pray, and not to faint."  If we do not pray always, we never pray.  The man who makes prayer a scheme by which occasionally he tries to get something for himself has not learned the deep, profound secret of prayer.  Prayer is life passionately wanting, wishing, desiring God's triumph.  Prayer is life striving, toiling everywhere and everywhen for that ultimate victory.  When men so pray they do not faint.  They mount up with wings as eagles, they run without weariness, they tramp the hardest, roughest road, and do not faint. (Ibid., 61)

May our prayers be constant, persistent with patience, as we seek to discover God.  When we know Him, we will then be able to grasp His will.  Too often we desire to know where a road leads instead of following Christ on the road wherever He leads.  Let us seek the LORD while He may be found, and call upon Him while He is near.  He is seeking such to worship Him in spirit and in truth.  He has promised that those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength.