Prayer and Justification

Why is keeping a consistent prayer life so difficult? If you are like me, I might start well but then end up fading away after a couple of days. Sometimes I don’t even notice that my prayer life has suffered until a week after I’ve stopped praying.

For me, the business of the world often take precedent over my prayer life. The tyranny of the urgent overcomes any noble aspirations to take a moment to pray. I think I do this because I want to conquer whatever problem is pressing so I can take credit and be proud of what I’ve accomplished. Prayer stands in the way of this self-justificaton, so it is thrown aside in my quest for self-righteousness.

Only when I rest in my own justification, and am freed from proving myself through my own efforts, can my prayer life really thrive. Then prayer becomes a need, not a requirement, in my life. Not only that but I can then take the time to build a relationship with God in prayer, rather than ask him for things that will satisfy my own desires. Only through my own justification can I ever begin to truly pray.