June 1 / Springs in the Valley by L.B. Cowman

June 1

Pray without ceasing. (1 Thess. 5:17)

Is it hypocritical to pray when we don’t feel like it?

Perhaps there is no more subtle hindrance to prayer than that of our moods. Nearly everybody has to meet that difficulty at times. Even God’s prophets were not wholly free from it. Habakkuk felt as if he were facing a blank wall for a long time. What shall we do when moods like this come to us? Wait until we do feel like praying? It is easy to persuade ourselves that it is hypocrisy to pray when we do not feel like it; but we don’t argue that way about other things in life. If you were in a room that had been tightly closed for some time you would, sooner or later, begin to feel very miserable—so miserable, perhaps, that you would not want to make the effort to open the windows, especially if they were difficult to open. But your weakness and listlessness would be proof that you were beginning to need fresh air very desperately—that you would soon be ill without it. If the soul perseveres in a life of prayer, there will come a time when these seasons of dryness will pass away and the soul will be led out, as Daniel says, “into a large place” (margin “into a moist place”). Let nothing discourage you.

If the soil is dry, keep cultivating it. It is said, that in a dry time this harrowing of the corn is equal to a shower of rain.

When we are listless about prayer it is the very time when we need most to pray. The only way we can overcome listlessness in anything is to put more of ourselves, not less, into the task. To pray when you do not feel like praying is not hypocrisy—it is faithfulness to the greatest duty of life. Just tell the Father that you don’t feel like it—ask Him to show you what is making you listless. He will help us to overcome our moods, and give us courage to persevere in spite of them.

“When you cannot pray as you would, pray as you can.” If I feel myself disinclined to pray, then is the time when I need to pray more than ever. Possibly when the soul leaps and exults in communion with God it might more safely refrain from prayer than at those seasons when it drags heavily in devotion. CHARLES H. SPURGEON

Cowman, L. B. E.. Springs in the Valley (p. 167). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.