This is Part Seven (the final post) in a series on The Sin of Prayerlessness. The excerpts come from the first chapter of the book The Prayer Life, by Andrew Murray. Click here for an introduction and links to the other posts in the series.

The Storm Center on the Battlefield:

Mention was made in conference of the expression “strategic position” used so often in reference to the great strife between the kingdom of heaven and the powers of darkness.

When a general chooses the place from which he intends to strike the enemy, he pays most attention to those points which he thinks most important in the fight. Thus there was on the battlefield of Waterloo a farmhouse which Wellington immediately saw was the key to the situation. He did not spare his troops in his endeavours to hold that point: the victory depended on it. So it actually happened. It is the same in the conflict between the believer and the powers of darkness. The inner chamber is the place where the decisive victory is obtained.

The enemy uses all his power to lead the Christian, and above all the minister, to neglect prayer. He knows that however admirable the sermon may be, however attractive the service, however faithful the pastoral visitation, none of these things can damage him or his kingdom if prayer is neglected. When the Church shuts herself up to the power of the inner chamber, and the soldiers of the Lord have received on their knees “power from on high,” then the powers of darkness will be shaken and souls will be delivered. In the Church, on the mission field, with the minister and his congregation, everything depends on the faithful exercise of the power of prayer.

In the week of conference I found the following in The Christian:

Two persons quarrel over a certain point. We call them Christian and Apollyon. Apollyon notices that Christian has a certain weapon which would give him a sure victory. They meet in deadly strife, and Apollyon resolves to take away the weapon from his opponent and destroy it. For the moment the main cause of the strife has become subordinate; the great point now is who shall get possession of the weapon on which everything depends? It is of vital importance to get hold of that.

So it is in the conflict between Satan and the believer. God’s child can conquer everything by prayer. Is it any wonder that Satan does his utmost to snatch that weapon from the Christian, or to hinder him in the use of it?

How now does Satan hinder prayer? By temptation to postpone or curtail it, by bringing in wandering thoughts and all sorts of distractions; through unbelief and hopelessness. Happy is the prayer hero who, through it all, takes care to hold fast and use his weapon. Like our Lord in Gethsemane, the more violently the enemy attacked the more earnestly he prayed and ceased not till he had obtained the victory. After all the other parts of the armor had been named, Paul adds: “With all prayer and supplication in the Spirit” (Eph. 6.18). Without prayer, the helmet of salvation, and the shield of faith, and the sword of the Spirit which is God’s word, have no power. All depends on prayer. God teach us to believe and hold this fast!

Thoughts: We cannot fight the good fight of faith without prayer. Prayer is the place where the decisive victory is obtained. I hope this series has been helpful to you in our own prayer life. If you enjoyed these excerpts from the first chapter, I would encourage you to buy the book. Here are a couple links:

• Amazon.com – The Prayer Life
• Christianbook.com – Living a Prayerful Life

Click here for more posts on Prayer.
Click here to read the message Called to Pray.

Now I just need to find a picture of a pig holding an “Eat turkey!” sign.

Related post: Another Garfield Monday – November
Click here for more Thanksgiving related posts.

I found this letter of thanksgiving from a Methodist minister particularly encouraging. I pray you find it encouraging, too! (The letter was actually written several weeks ago, but it is very appropriate for today.)

What a Great Day This Is! This morning, as I was driving to work, I heard that the market had gone down another 500 points. It has now dropped from a high of over 14,000 to 9,000. This is not good news. It has messed with my retirement plan and made my net worth go from pride to hide. It has turned easy street into a mean street. The bottom line is that I do not have nearly as much money or assets as I had just a short while ago. Let me share with you what I also discovered this morning:

1. I was breathing and, in general, feeling pretty healthy.
2. My wife gave me a kiss and told me she loved me.
3. I was driving to WORK! I have a job.
4. All of my children have jobs and are safe and well.
5. My two grandchildren still light up my life and give wonderful hugs and sugars.
6. I am a citizen of the greatest nation on the face of the earth and I will get to vote soon on how to make it better.
7. A good friend called and wants to go out to dinner and a show. (I have a friend.)
8. I am still a United Methodist minister.
9. My home is safe, warm, secure and nearly paid for.
10. I got an e-mail that told me my new book was changing their church for the better (someone is reading it).
11. I ate breakfast and lunch and will have dinner later. (Many won’t get three meals today.)
12. I am actually sitting down in a building I own, at a desk I bought, typing on a $2,000 machine I can barely use.
13. I have a big huge bottle of wonderful fresh clean water right down the hall or I could choose to drink right from the tap all I can hold.
14. I am wearing clean clothes today, and tomorrow I will wear something different. In fact, I could wear something different every day this month if I wanted to.
15. I HAVE A SAVIOR WHO WILL NEVER LEAVE ME.

It is a shame that it took losing so much money for me to realize how rich I really am! This week may be one of the best weeks of my life.

Click here for more Thanksgiving related posts.

This is Part Six in a series on The Sin of Prayerlessness. The excerpts come from the first chapter of the book The Prayer Life, by Andrew Murray. Click here for an introduction and links to the other posts in the series.

The Cause of Prayerlessness:

In an elder’s prayer meeting, a brother put the question: “What, then, is the cause of so much prayerlessness? Is it not unbelief?”

The answer was: “Certainly; but then comes the question what is the cause of that unbelief?” When the disciples asked the Lord Jesus: “Why could not we cast the devil out?’ His answer was: “Because of your unbelief.” He went further and said: “Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting” (Matt. 17.19-21). If the life is not one of self-denial — of fasting — that is, letting the world go; of prayer — that is, laying hold of heaven, faith cannot be exercised. A life lived according to the flesh and not according to the Spirit — it is in this that we find the origin of the prayerlessness of which we complain. As we came out of the meeting a brother said to me: “That is the whole difficulty; we wish to pray in the Spirit and at the same time walk after the flesh, and this is impossible.” …

Scripture teaches us that there are but two conditions possible for the Christian. One is a walk according to the Spirit, the other a walk according to ‘the flesh.’ These two powers are in irreconcilable conflict with each other … ‘The flesh’ cannot be improved or sanctified. “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Rom. 8.7). There is no means of dealing with ‘the flesh’ save as Christ dealt with it, bearing it to the cross. “Our old man is crucified with him” (Rom. 6.6); so we by faith also crucify it, and regard and treat it daily as an accursed thing that finds its rightful place on the accursed cross.

Here then we have the deep root of evil as the cause of a prayerless life. ‘The flesh’ can say prayers well enough, calling itself religious for so doing and thus satisfying conscience. But ‘the flesh’ has no desire or strength for the prayer that strives after an intimate knowledge of God; that rejoices in fellowship with him; and that continues to lay hold of his strength. So, finally, it comes to this, ‘the flesh’ must be denied and crucified …

O my brethren, do not seek to find in circumstances the explanation of this prayerlessness over which we mourn; seek it where God’s word declares it to be, in the hidden aversion of the heart to a holy God.

When a Christian does not yield entirely to the leading of the Spirit — and this is certainly the will of God and the work of his grace — he lives, without knowing it, under the power of ‘the flesh’ … I pray you take time and give an answer to the question: Have I not found here the cause of my prayerlessness, of my powerlessness to effect any change in the matter? I live in the Spirit, I have been born again, but I do not walk after the Spirit — ‘the flesh’ lords it over me. The carnal life cannot possibly pray in the spirit and power. God forgive me. The carnal life is evidently the cause of my sad and shameful prayerlessness.

Thoughts: This is a long excerpt but a good one. The takeaway line for me comes right near the beginning: “We wish to pray in the Spirit and at the same time walk after the flesh, and this is impossible.” Our prayer life is integrally connected with the rest of our life. How we live affects how we pray and vice versa. As someone once said, “Prayer will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from prayer.” How will you live differently this week knowing that walking according to the flesh rather than the Spirit is the cause of prayerlessness?

Next post in series:  The Storm Center on the Battlefield

Attention all Monk fans! A special, all-new holiday episode of Monk premieres this Friday night on USA. This will be the only new episode of Monk until January 2009 when the second half of season seven begins.

Detective Adrian Monk believes in such things as hand sanitizer, disinfectant spray and color-coordinated jelly beans. But does Mr. Monk believe in miracles? Find out as a special episode of Monk arrives just in time for the holidays. Catch the premiere of “Mr. Monk and The Miracle” Friday, November 28 at 9/8C only on USA Network.

In other news, USA Network has announced that Monk’s eighth and final season will debut in summer of 2009. This will be a sixteen-episode season which will bring the whole series to a close.

“We want to build to a spectacular conclusion for this wonderful show,” USA Network’s executive vice president of original programming, Jeff Wachtel, said in making the announcement. ” By many measures, Monk is the most successful series in the history of basic cable…. Our fans have been extremely dedicated, and Season 8 should prove to be a very satisfying reward.”

This is a great show, and I will be sorry to see it end, but I am glad they are at least planning for it, so that they can work towards bringing the story arc to a satisfying conclusion.

Click for related post: The Best Monk Review Ever

The online dating service eHarmony will provide same-sex matches as part of a settlement from a lawsuit complaining that the company discriminated against same-sex singles.

The settlement is the result of a complaint New Jersey resident Eric McKinley filed against the online matchmaker in 2005. McKinley, 46, said he was shocked when he tried to sign up for the dating site but couldn’t get past the first screen because there was no option for men seeking men …

Neither the company nor its founder, Neil Clark Warren, acknowledged any liability. Under the settlement, eHarmony will pay New Jersey state division $50,000 to cover administrative costs and will pay McKinley $5,000 … Pasadena, Calif.-based eHarmony said it plans to launch its new service, called Compatible Partners, on March 31 …

Theodore B. Olson, an attorney for eHarmony, said that even though the company believed McKinley’s complaint was “an unfair characterization of our business,” it chose to settle because of the unpredictable nature of litigation.

I don’t see why this is discrimination. If a person walks into McDonald’s, orders a hamburger and is denied service because he is gay, that is discrimination. But if the same person is turned away because he orders steak, that is not discrimination. It is simply not on the menu. The same conditions apply to every person who walks through the door.

eHarmony is a private company offering a specific service: the matching of compatible men and women for relationships based on years of research on male/female relationships. As long as they provide this service to all men and women equally, it is not discrimination. Mr. McKinley was not turned down because he was gay. He was turned down because he asked for a service that eHarmony did not provide. eHarmony also does not provide compatible matches for nannies, nurses and college roommates. Should their company be sued for that?

I don’t understand why a private company like eHarmony which provides a specific service of matching compatible men and women should be required to expand their service to match same-sex couples. Surely there are other online dating companies that provide this service. And of course it works the other way. A dating company that caters to same-sex couples should not be forced to expand their services to include male/female matches. I think this whole case sets a dangerous precedent.

So, what do you think of all this? Is this a case of discrimination? Should eHarmony be required to provide same-sex matches?

Related post: Statistics on Living Together Before Marriage
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• Bob Jones Apologizes. Bob Jones University of Greenville, South Carolina, issued an online statement last week apologizing for “racially hurtful” practices of its past, including prohibiting married African American students until 1971 and unmarried African American students until 1975, and banning interracial dating until 2000.

This is Part Five in a series on The Sin of Prayerlessness. The excerpts come from the first chapter of the book The Prayer Life, by Andrew Murray. Click here for an introduction and links to the other posts in the series.

A Witness from America:

In 1898, there were two members of the Presbytery in New York who attended the Northfield Conference for the deepening of the spiritual life. They returned to their work with the fire of a new enthusiasm. They endeavoured to bring about a revival in the entire Presbytery. In a meeting which they held, the chairman was guided to ask the brethren a question concerning their prayer life: “Brethren,” said he, “let us today make confession before God and each other. It will do us good. Will everyone who spends half an hour every day with God in connection with his work hold up a hand?” One hand was held up. He made a further request: “All who thus spend fifteen minutes hold up a hand.” Not half of the hands were held up. Then he said: “Prayer, the working power of the Church of Christ, and half of the workers make hardly any use of it! All who spend five minutes hold up hands.” All hands went up. But one man came later with the confession that he was not quite sure if he spent five minutes in prayer every day. “It is,” said he, “a terrible revelation of how little time I spend with God.”

Thoughts: In an interview on his 90th birthday, Billy Graham said that he wished he had spent more time with his family, more time studying and more time in prayer. Do you wish you spent more time in prayer? What positive steps can you take this week towards that goal?

Next post in series:  The Cause of Prayerlessness

Do you have a habit of procrastinating? Here is the best advice on procrastination I have read.

“No unwelcome tasks become any the less unwelcome by putting them off till tomorrow. It is only when they are behind us and done, that we begin to find that there is a sweetness to be tasted afterwards, and that the remembrance of unwelcome duties unhesitatingly done is welcome and pleasant. Accomplished, they are full of blessing, and there is a smile on their faces as they leave us. Undone, they stand threatening and disturbing our tranquility, and hindering our communion with God. If there be lying before you any bit of work from which you shrink, go straight up to it, and do it at once. The only way to get rid of it is to do it.”

-Alexander MacLaren (1826–1910), Scottish preacher

HT: C.J. Mahaney

This is Part Four in a series on The Sin of Prayerlessness. The excerpts come from the first chapter of the book The Prayer Life, by Andrew Murray. Click here for an introduction and links to the other posts in the series.

Prayerlessness and the Gospel:

What is it, then, that makes prayerlessness such a great sin?

Consider–
    1. What a reproach it is to God.
    2. It is the cause of a deficient spiritual life.
    3. The dreadful loss which the church suffers as a result of
        prayerlessness of the minister.
    4. The impossibility of preaching the gospel to all men–as we
        are commanded by Christ to do–so long as this sin is not
        overcome and cast out.

Many feel that the great need of missions is the obtaining of men and women who will give themselves to the Lord to strive in prayer for the salvation of souls. It has also been said that God is eager and able to deliver and bless the world he has redeemed, if his people were but willing, if they were but ready, to cry to him day and night But how can congregations be brought to that unless there comes first an entire change in ministers and that they begin to see that the indispensable thing is not preaching, not pastoral visitation, not church work, but fellowship with God in prayer till they are clothed with power from on high?

Oh, that all thought and work and expectation concerning the kingdom might drive us to the acknowledgement of the sin of prayerlessness! God help us to root it out! God deliver us from it through the blood and power of Christ Jesus! God teach every minister of the Word to see what a glorious place he may occupy if he first of all is delivered from this root of evils; so that with courage and joy, in faith and perseverance, he can go on with his God!

The sin of prayerlessness! The Lord lay the burden of it so heavy on our hearts that we may not rest till it is taken far from us through the name and power of Jesus. He will make this possible for us.

Thoughts: The gospel cannot go forth in power without prayer. Do you pray for missions on a regular basis? How about for your church’s missionaries? Here are two great resources to help you join in the worldwide effort of praying for missions. Remember, your prayers make a difference!

• Joshua Project
• Operation World

Next post in series:  A Witness from America

Yesterday was our annual Thanksgiving Testimony Sunday. Adults, teens and children returned thanks to God for all the good things he is doing and has done in their lives this past year. This is always one of my favorite Sundays. It is such an encouragement to hear people publicly share their testimonies of praise to our great God. Thank you to everyone who shared in our service yesterday!

“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

Note: The Prayer Series continues tomorrow and will conclude on Friday.

Brad Wright reviews Willow Creek’s Follow Me: What’s Next for You? (Reveal II) by Greg Hawkins and Cally Parkinson. What’s the difference between Reveal and Follow Me?

Reveal uncovers and explains a spiritual continuum that identifies four segments of the spiritual journey … Follow Me focuses on movement—the vital things that catalyze growth and move people from one segment to the next on the spiritual continuum.

Here are the links to Brad’s 13-part review:

Part 1:  A Review of Willow Creek’s Follow Me: What’s Next for You?
Part 2:  Summary of Findings
Part 3:  Strengths of the Study
Part 4:  Why Collect Data
Part 5:  What’s New?
Part 6:  Answering longitudinal questions with cross-sectional data
Part 7:  Which comes first? Spiritual growth or behaviors and attitudes?
Part 8:  Is the spiritual continuum a useful concept?
Part 9:  Do church services matter? Apparently yes.
Part 10:  The gap between importance and satisfaction
Part 11  Is academic research of value to the church?
Part 12:  Do breakthrough findings exist?
Part 13:  Conclusion

Related posts:
    • A Sociologist Reviews UnChristian
    • Willow Creek Shifts Model Based on Reveal
    • A Sociologist Reviews Willow Creek’s Reveal Study