Prayer? Has it come to that?

I recall reading a story about a woman who received a grim diagnosis from her Doctor. She said is there anything I can do? He replied, well you can pray...she said " Has it come to that?

*In the introduction to his book A Call to Spiritual Reformation: Priorities from Paul and His Prayers, author D.A. Carson writes:

Do you not sense, with me, the severity of the problem? Granted that most of us know some individuals who are remarkable prayer warriors, is it not nevertheless true that by and large we are better at organizing than agonizing? Better at administering than interceding? Better at fellowship than fasting? Better at entertainment than worship? Better at theological articulation than spiritual adoration? Better—God help us!—at preaching than at praying?

The following thoughts on prayer ( while not my own)sum up for me, so clearly what I believe is the disconect with to many of us who say we believe in prayer.

"Prayer involves, at a tremendously deep level, a particular commitment to pray. Without such a deep commitment, the prayers offered by Christians are not likely to be characterized by the sort of power or display the sort peculiar of intensity that prayers of the King should. The prayers will, instead, be characterized by brevity, superficiality, and a serious lack of reverence for the One being prayed to.

But we are not the sort of people in the American church that are particularly fond of much that requires an especially deep commitment to anything or an especially deep anything. We are rather fond of the quick, the easy, the shallow, the puerile, the now.

Prayer, however, is a work and work requires strength, stamina, and an understanding of the work being done.

In other words, we should know what to pray as well as how to pray. The Apostle taught us as much when he wrote",

“I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me” (Romans 15:30). * Quoted Verbatim from dangoldfinch.wordpress.com.

Prayer should be the first thing we come to!