The Believer’s Constant Conversation
It is really a latent danger, and I mean a real danger, that Christians who have a knowledge of doctrine and an effective understanding of their resources and spiritual principles can become satisfied, so that heartrending, passionate, constant prayer has no place, or very little place; and that is sin.
Prayer is the Christian’s breath. If you hold your breath, that’s challenging. It’s more difficult to hold your breath than it is to breathe, by far. The same is true with prayer. You shouldn’t be having to work to pray; it should be the most natural expression of your spiritual lungs to commune with God, to let Him into every thought and every conversation, everything in your life. That is really the spiritual thing to do, to breathe in the sense that you’re communing with God. If you’re not regularly and faithfully in prayer, you’re struggling against your own spiritual nature. You’re trying to hold your spiritual breath. And that will stop the power. And the cause for prayerlessness is always the same: sin and selfishness.
I have walked with the Lord all these many years; I have found the sweetness of that conversation. All of life is a constant communion with God. Everything that happens to me, around me, everything that I see and observe pushes me Godward, opens my mind and my heart to Him. When there is something wonderful that happened, something good, some blessing, it’s so easy to say, “Thank you.” I find myself doing that virtually all the time, “Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord.” That’s an open conversation. I’m not necessarily trying to find flowery words. We are to “give thanks in everything.” “This is the will of God” for us, 1 Thessalonians 5 says. So when I see the blessings of life, the challenges of life that strengthened me and strengthened those around me, when I see the good news doing its work in people’s lives, when I see righteousness and godliness, when I see flourishing ministry and faithfulness—and I see it all the time, every day of my life—my heart just says, “Thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You.” It goes back to the communion and the conversation that’s always open between me and the Lord.
So the frequency of prayer: all the time. The variety of prayer: all kinds of prayer. The manner of prayer: alert and persevering. It’s a struggle. You stay with it, knowing that “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much,” and that “if you ask, you’ll receive.”
Selected excerpts from “Prayer: The Believer’s Constant Conversation,” preached December 18, 2022, by John MacArthur.
Day of Prayer
Saturday, March 28
6 am–6 pm
T70 (Tower Basement)
Join us at any point during the day for a day dedicated to prayer.