{"id":1579,"date":"2016-04-01T08:08:44","date_gmt":"2016-04-01T13:08:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedisciplemaker.org\/?p=1579"},"modified":"2023-06-27T21:00:21","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T21:00:21","slug":"not-in-the-mood-to-pray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2016\/04\/not-in-the-mood-to-pray\/","title":{"rendered":"Not in the Mood to Pray?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"bsf_rt_marker\"><\/div><p style=\"text-align: left\">Nineteenth century British preacher Charles Spurgeon said: \u201cWe should pray when we are in a praying mood, for it would be sinful to neglect so fair an opportunity. We should pray when we are not in a praying mood, for it would be dangerous to remain in so unhealthy a condition.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Recently I received an email from a missionary in Eastern Europe. He had taken the words of Spurgeon to heart and was requesting prayer that the Lord would draw him into prayer. His problem, <img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-1591 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/wp-content\/uploads\/Glory-5.jpg\" alt=\"Glory\" width=\"205\" height=\"227\" \/>he explained, was that he just couldn\u2019t seem to get focused in the morning. <strong>He didn\u2019t feel like praying, even when he knew he should.<\/strong><br \/>\nHas that ever happened to you? It happens to me on a reoccurring basis. Fortunately, this missionary knew who held the key: God Himself. He requested prayer, and I will continue to pray for him. But I also wrote back to him something that has always helped me.<br \/>\nJohn Bunyan, author of Pilgrim\u2019s Progress, said: \u201cOur heart faces many difficulties in the time of prayer. No one knows how many by-ways and back-lanes our heart may use to slip away from the presence of God. . . . My heart when I go to prayer is disinclined to go to God; and when it is with Him, so disinclined to stay with Him.\u201d<br \/>\n<strong>I\u2019ve learned not to trust my heart always to have the desire to seek God.<\/strong> I know it won\u2019t. Eph. 6:18 says, \u201cAnd pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests\u201d\u2014for it is only the work of the Holy Spirit that enables us to pray as we ought.<br \/>\nLuke 11:13 says, \u201cIf you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!\u201d In regard to this passage, Spurgeon said, \u201cIt appears plainly enough from the text that this Holy Spirit is to be given in answer to prayer. Did not we hear some time ago from certain wise brethren that we were<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-434 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/wp-content\/uploads\/stimulating-appetite-for-prayer.jpg\" alt=\"Stimulating an Appetite for Prayer\" width=\"369\" height=\"246\" \/> never to pray for the Spirit? I think I heard it said often, \u2018We have the Holy Spirit, and therefore we are not to pray for it.\u2019 If we have life, we are to pray that we have it more abundantly. If we have the Holy Spirit so that we are quickened, and saved, we do not ask for Him in that capacity, but we ask for His power in other directions, and for His grace in other forms.\u201d<br \/>\nSince the day of my conversion, I have been dependent on God through the Holy Spirit to give me the right desires, and then through the Holy Spirit to give me the ability or power to carry them out. Spurgeon said, \u201cOh, if any of you are but just Christians, and are not glorifying God, nor living near Him, nor mighty in prayer . . . I beseech you remember, if you have not the Spirit it is because you do not seek Him persistently, do not seek Him with a deep sense of your need of Him.\u201d<br \/>\nNow, whenever I find myself not in a praying mood or inclined to say, \u201cI just can\u2019t pray, my heart\u2019s not in it, or I\u2019m too distracted,\u201d I remind myself that the Spirit of God can. So I ask the Holy Spirit for help . . . and I pray!<br \/>\n\u2014Ed D. Kleiman<br \/>\nUsed by permission of <em>Pray!<\/em>\u00a0Copyright \u00a9 2003, Issue 36, The Navigators. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. www.navpress.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nineteenth century British preacher Charles Spurgeon said: \u201cWe should pray when we are in a praying mood, for it would be sinful to neglect so fair an opportunity. We should pray when we are not in a praying mood, for &#8230; <\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more-container\"><a title=\"Not in the Mood to Pray?\" class=\"read-more button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2016\/04\/not-in-the-mood-to-pray\/#more-1579\">Read more<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Not in the Mood to Pray?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":""},"categories":[12,16],"tags":[401],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Not in the Mood to Pray? - The Disciplemaker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2016\/04\/not-in-the-mood-to-pray\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Not in the Mood to Pray? - The Disciplemaker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nineteenth century British preacher Charles Spurgeon said: \u201cWe should pray when we are in a praying mood, for it would be sinful to neglect so fair an opportunity. 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