Pray When You Feel Least Like Praying
HAVE you noticed that when you have been overtaken in a fault, or have been indulging in some sinful pleasure, you feel less like praying than at any other time? It doesn’t seem to you then as if you dared to pray; you feel ashamed to come into the presence of the Lord. Well, fix it in your minds that when you feel least like praying is when you most need to pray. Do not let Satan keep you back from it, by any feeling of shame or unworthiness. You are in the presence of God anyhow, because you can not possibly go from the presence of his Spirit. You can not hide from him; why not then freely confess the sin, and receive forgiveness, that you may stand clear before him, and not with the shamefulness of sin? Our need is our recommendation to mercy. “For thy name’s sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.” Ps. 25:11. “Good and upright is the Lord: therefore will he teach sinners in the way.” “I am poor and sorrowful: let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high.” Ps. 69:29.—Selected.