Our minds become worldly, and we feel more and more alienated from God, and therefore have less and less about which to speak with Him. Then we develop an unwilling spirit, which always finds pretexts for not praying and excuses for having neglected prayer. Our inner life begins to weaken. The pain of living in sin is not felt as keenly as before, because sin is no longer honestly confessed before God.
Every Christian is called to pray. Every minister is called to pray. And yet many of us struggle to pray consistent and heartfelt prayers to the Lord. Norwegian preacher Ole Hallesby wrote in 1931 about the costly results of an impaired prayer life, and the wise will take his words to heart and ask for the Lord’s help in prayer.
Children of God can grieve Jesus in no worse way than to neglect prayer. For by so doing they sever the connection between themselves and the Savior, and their inner life is doomed to be withered and crippled, as is the case with most of us…
The result is that we go about at home and in the assembly of believers like spiritual cripples or dwarfs, spiritually starved and emaciated, with scarcely enough strength to stand on our own feet, not to speak of fighting against sin and serving the Lord… This neglect is the cause of my many other sins of commission as well as of commission…
