💾 Archived View for gem.goomball.space › books › quotes › prayer-john-bunyan-1.gmi captured on 2023-03-20 at 17:56:08. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
'Ay', says Satan, 'you may pray indeed, but you will not prevail. Your heart is hard, cold, dull, and dead; you do not pray with the Spirit, you do not pray in good earnest, your thoughts are running after other things, when you pretend to pray to God. Away hypocrite, go no further, it is but in vain to strive any longer!' Here then, if the soul be not well informed in its understanding, it will presenty cry out 'The Lord hath forsaken me and the Lord hath forgotten me' (Is. 49:14). Whereas the soul rightly informed and enlightened says, 'Well, I will seek the Lord, and wait; I will not leave off, though the Lord keep silence, and speak not one word of comfort (Is. 40:27).' The Lord loved Jacob dearly, and yet he made him wrestle before he had the blessing (Gen 32: 25-27). Seeming delays in God are no token of his displeasure; he may hide his face from his dearest saints (Is. 8:17). He loves to keep his people praying, and to find them ever knocking at the gate of heaven; 'it may be', says the soul, 'the Lord tries me, or he loves to hear me groan out my condition before him.'
John Bunayn
This quotation from John Bunyan's book on prayer hits me really hard in my heart. As Bunyan plays the devil's advocate by literally speaking as Satan, these are all things I tell myself. These are lies I believe about my prayer life. It can be so easy to grow discouraged in our prayer when our adversary is there to lie to us and deceive us as we try to commune with our Father. The Devil will try his hardest to stop us from communicating with our Father by planting seeds of doubt and lies. I have felt this personally, and have struggled with this immensely.
Thankfully, Bunyan provides us with beautiful hope. Bunyan encourages us to continue to seek after God. Even when it seems like our Father is distant, call to Him. Even when our Father seems absent or apathetic towards our situation, call unto Him.
Seeming delays in God are no token of his displeasure.
How true that is. God wants us to come to him in prayer. Luke 11 & 18 give us assurance of God's grace in our prayer. If a Judge gets annoyed to the point of giving an elderly lady what she wants, how much more will our heavenly Father give us what we ask for? So, if you are discouraged in your prayer life, my advice is to keep praying! God says that to the one who asks, they will receive. Ask for grace in your prayer life. Ask for grace in your fight against sin. Ask for grace in your pursuit and love of God Himself. He will surely give you these things in time. And don't be discouraged by any seeming delays in God, they are not a token of His displeasure toward you.