Danger of not praying

Of all the quotes I shared from PT Forsyth’s book yesterday, the one that scares me most is, “Not to want to pray, then, is the sin behind sin.  And it ends in not being able to pray.”

Is there a time when the Holy Spirit quits drawing us to pray?  Could we close the door to fellowship  so many times that He quits knocking and, in the hardness, we’ve developed toward His call, we won’t even notice?

Forsyth says it is the punishment…we reach a spiritual dumbness or a spiritual starvation.  “We do not take our spiritual food, and so we falter, dwindle, and die.”

Is this like Esau?  The writer of Hebrews said “sold his birthright for a single meal.  For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.” (12:17)

There isn’t a set number of times He will call, but there just seems to be a point that we reject deeper intimacy and God quits offering.  If you are worried that you’ve reached that point…the fact that you are worrying is proof that you haven’t, but I don’t want to get close to that.

Intimacy with God is the greatest privilege we have in life.  There is no greater honor, no higher calling, than to be with Him…to talk to Him and listen to what He has to say.  Prayer is the greatest joy I have, but it is also the hardest thing I do.  That sounds like a paradox, doesn’t it?  But it is true.