How to Be Delivered From Prayerlessness

How to Be Delivered From Prayerlessness

By Andrew Murray,
Living a Prayerful Life

The greatest stumbling block in the way of victory over prayerlessness is the secret feeling that we will never obtain the blessing of being delivered from it. 

Often we have tried, but in vain. 

Old habits, the power of the flesh, and our surroundings with their varied attractions and distractions, have been too strong for us. 

What good does it do to attempt what our heart assures us is out of our reach? 

The change needed in the entire life is too great and too difficult. 

If the question is put: ‘‘Is a change possible?’’ our sighing heart says, 

‘‘For me it is entirely impossible!’’ 

Do you know why we answer like that? 

It is simply because we have heard the call to prayer as the voice of Moses and as a command of the law. Moses and his law have never given anyone the power to obey.

Do you really long for the courage to believe that deliverance from a prayerless life is possible for you and may become a reality? 

Then you must learn the great lesson that such a deliverance is included in the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, that it is one of the blessings of the new covenant that God himself will impart to you through Christ Jesus. 

As you begin to understand this, you will find that the exhortation ‘‘Pray without ceasing’’ conveys a new meaning. 

Hope begins to spring up in your heart that the Spirit—who has been bestowed on you to cry constantly, ‘‘Abba, Father’’—will make a true life of prayer possible for you. 

Then you will hearken not in the spirit of discouragement but in the gladness of hope to the voice that calls you to repentance.

Many a person has turned to his place of prayer under bitter self-accusation that he has prayed so little, and he has resolved for the future to live in a different manner. 

Yet no blessing has come—there has not been the strength to continue faithful, and the call to repentance has had no power because his eyes were not fixed on the Lord Jesus. 

If he had only understood, he would have said, 

‘‘Lord, you see how cold and dark my heart is. I know that I must pray, but I feel I cannot do so. I lack the urgency and desire to pray.’’

He did not know that at that same moment the Lord Jesus in His tender love was looking down upon him and saying, 

‘‘You cannot pray. 

You feel that all is cold and dark. 

Why not give yourself over into my hands? 

Only believe that I am ready to help you in prayer. 

I long to pour my love into your heart so that you, in the consciousness of weakness, may confidently rely on me to bestow the grace of prayer. 

Just as I will cleanse you from all other sins, so also will I deliver you from the sin of prayerlessness—only do not seek the victory in your own strength. 

Bow before me as one who expects everything from his Savior. 

Let your soul keep silence before me, however lame you feel your state is. 

Be assured of this: I will teach you how to pray.’’

Many will acknowledge: 

‘‘I see my mistake. 

I had not thought that the Lord Jesus must deliver and cleanse me from this sin also. 

I had not understood that He was with me every day as I prayed, ready in His great love to keep and to bless me, however sinful and guilty I felt myself to be. 

I had not supposed that just as He will give all other grace in answer to prayer, so, first and most of all, He will bestow the grace of a praying heart. 

What folly to think that all other blessings must come from Him, but that prayer, on which everything else depends, must be obtained by personal effort! 

Thank God, I have begun to comprehend: 

The Lord Jesus himself is in my prayer closet, watching over me and holding himself responsible to teach me how to approach the Father. 

He only asks that I, with childlike confidence, wait upon Him and glorify Him."

Have we forgotten this truth? 

From a defective spiritual life, nothing better can be expected than a defective prayer life. 

It is vain for us to endeavor to pray more or better while we remain in a state of spiritual drought. 

It is an impossibility. 

It is essential that we experience that ‘‘he who is in Christ Jesus is a new creature: 

old things have passed away; 

behold, all things are become new.’’ 

This is literally true for the man who understands and experiences what it is to be in Christ.

Our whole relationship to the Lord Jesus must be a new thing. 

I must believe in His infinite love, which longs to have communion with me every moment and to keep me in the enjoyment of His fellowship. 

I must believe in His divine power, which has conquered sin and will truly keep me from it. 

I must believe in Him who, as the great Intercessor, through the Spirit, will inspire each member of His body with joy and power for communion with God in prayer. 

My prayer life must be brought entirely under the control of Christ and His love. 

Then for the first time prayer will become what it really is: 

the natural and joyous breathing of the spiritual life, 

by which the heavenly atmosphere is inhaled and then exhaled in prayer.

Do you see that when this faith possesses us, the call to a life of prayer that pleases God will be a welcome call? 

The cry ‘‘Repent of the sin of prayerlessness’’ will not be responded to by a sigh of helplessness or by the unwillingness of the flesh. 

The voice of the Father will be heard as He sets before us a widely opened door and receives us into blessed fellowship with himself. 

Prayer for the Spirit’s help to pray will no longer be in fear of an effort too great for our own power. 

Instead, it will be merely falling down in utter weakness at the feet of the Lord Jesus to find there that victory comes through the might and love that stream from His countenance.

Perhaps the question arises in our mind: 

Will this continue? 

Fear follows, ‘‘You know how often you have tried and been disappointed.’’ 

But now faith finds strength, not in the thought of what you will do, but in the changeless faithfulness and love of Christ, who once again helps and assures you that those who wait on Him shall not be ashamed.

If fear and hesitation still remain, I pray that you by the mercies of God in Jesus Christ and by the unspeakable faithfulness of His tender love, dare to cast yourselves at His feet. 

Only believe with your whole heart—there is deliverance from the sin of prayerlessness. 

‘‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness’’ 

(1 John 1:9). 

In His blood and grace there is complete deliverance from all unrighteousness and from all prayerlessness. 

Praise His name forever!