Sword & Trowel 2016: Issue 1
Thou wilt display that sovereign grace Where all my hopes have hung: I shall employ my heart in praise, And victory shall be sung.
By the end of the psalm, praise is
again on David’s lips, and we should learn that to recount God’s goodness, and to affirm his mercies, even when we feel little, often leads to a good measure of returning joy. In Psalm 56 David follows the same
procedure, expressing his trust in God in the darkest circumstances, re- flecting on the goodness of the Lord and his Word, and subsequently find- ing his feelings joining with his mind. The psalmist’s words in Psalm 61 ring true for all believers at some time – ‘When my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.’ Once again, reflection, affir- mation and thanksgiving soon lift the psalmist in heart. Psalm 42 – unascribed – is a great example of how a clear affirmation in prayer of our belief in God’s faithful- ness can lift our spirits, and Asaph’s Psalm 77 also demonstrates the value of praise to rekindle dormant feel- ings. We should review and rehearse in praise all our blessings, as well as God’s supreme goodness, and never lapse into forlorn prayerlessness. To the exercise of praise we add
two further measures for coldness of heart, the first being the practice of reviewing in detail the many sig- nificant answers to prayer which the Lord has given in past weeks – even months and years. We should press the mind to go back and acknowl- edge the ways of God, and thank him. It may be helpful to put a list of significant answers in writing, so that
these can be called to mind readily in prayer. One remedy for ‘feelings’ prob- lems is to put intercession first in our prayers. If we are cold and spiritu- ally detached when we go to pray, to plead for others makes us less con- cerned about our own feelings and trials, and more focused on their spir- itual needs, and this often helps us to regain fervour of heart. Our ministry of intercession is not only a means of blessing to others, but a means of blessing to us also.
MENTAL TIREDNESS
What can be done when tiredness, short concentration span, or forget- fulness strike the time of prayer? The most obvious remedy is to pray more briefly, more often. We should pray several times in the day as op- portunity arises, and make greater use of ‘emergency’ prayers of a few sentences, as occasion requires. Mul- tiple prayer is mentioned by David in Psalm 55 (one of his psalms of dis- tress) – ‘Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray’ (v 17). Frequency in prayer definitely helps one over the tiredness problem. Roaming thoughts and lack of concentration can also be countered by breaking up a prayer time into portions. When thoughts begin to wander, stop the prayer and wait or read for five minutes before re- suming. Another well-tried help for sustaining concentration is to use notes in prayer, a method all should try at some time if only to train one- self to be thorough. In times when
Remedies for Problems in Prayer page 11 REMEDIES FOR
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