"Pray Until You Pray"

In the first chapter, Carson gives several basic pointers for establishing a regular prayer life. One concept I thought particularly helpful: "Pray until you pray."

As Carson explains, the Puritans used to give each other this advice.

"What they meant is that Christians should pray long enough and honestly enough, at a single session, to get past the feeling of formalism and unreality that attends not a little praying. We are especially prone to such feelings when we pray for only a few minutes, rushing to be done with a mere duty. To enter the spirit of prayer, we must stick to it for a while. If we "pray until we pray," eventually we will come to delight in God's presence, to rest in his love, to cherish his will. Even in dark or agonized praying, we somehow know we are doing business with God. In short, we discover a little of what Jude means when he exhorts his readers to "pray in the Holy Spirit" (Jude 20)--which presumably means it is treacherously possible to pray not in the Spirit."

He also said that

"If some generations need to learn that God is not particularly impressed by long-winded prayers, and is not more disposed to help us just because we are garrulous, our generation needs to learn that God is not impressed by the kind of brevity that is nothing other than culpable negligence. He is not more disposed to help us because our insincerity and spiritual flightiness conspire to keep our prayers brief."

I pondered the point he was making and had to agree. Many times our prayers, mine included, are brief and insincere. We are not practiced in prayer, and thus it feels unnatural to us. When we do pray we hurry to finish in order to escape the awkwardness we feel while at it.

This should not be. Prayer is absolutely essential for fellowship with God and for spiritual growth and sanctification.

As I continued reading, I considered my own need to become more seasoned in prayer and made a mental note to make this a priority in my own life. But before I reached the end of the "pray until you pray" section of the book I found myself struck with sadness and shame. Carson's final illustrative point on the matter hit me like a punch in the gut.

"The Puritans... exhorted one another to "pray until you pray." ...in the Western world we urgently need this advice, for many of us in our praying are like nasty little boys who ring front door bells and run away before anyone answers."

Ouch. I certainly do not want this to be true of my prayer life. On the one hand, it would be easy to dismiss this point, thinking that this illustration is too harsh or too base to match the kinds of prayers that I pray. I am tempted to think, "That's not the way I pray..." or "He's talking about other people there, not me..." But in all honesty, I think this calls for serious evaluation of my prayer life.

Is it weird to spend time before God in prayer about the condition of my prayer life? I think I'm going to...