Deaf as a Doorknob
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
“Cold prayers ask the Lord not to hear them. Those who do not plead with fervency do not plead at all. We might as well talk of lukewarm fire as of lukewarm prayer—it is essential that it be red-hot.” – C.H. Spurgeon
“Honey,” Deanna said… to which there was no reply.
“HONEY,” she said again, louder and more emphatically.
“Oh, good grief,” she said with a shake of her head, “You don’t have your hearing aid in.”
The truth be told, I can hear pretty well in my left ear, but the hearing in my right ear only operates at about 20%. And so, without my trusty hearing aid, you can talk to me until you’re blue in the face if I am sitting to the left of you.
My friend, we all want God to hear our prayers, but the point that Charles Spurgeon is making today is that God “turns off His hearing aid” when our prayers are lukewarm. It’s not that He can’t hear us, but rather that He despises cold and insincere faith. That is why in the verse below, James emphasizes that fervent prayers are the ones that move God to act on our behalf and the behalf of others.
Larry Lufburrow, one of my spiritual mentors who is now home with the Lord, once taught me a very valuable lesson about prayer that I still remember to this day. “Don’t pray to God”, Larry told me, “unless you are praying expectantly.”
In other words, God isn’t interested in our Hail Mary prayers that we heave into the air in desperation, not really expecting an answer. On the contrary, if we are praying in accordance with His Word and His will, we should expect Him to answer. Maybe not the way we want, but He will answer nonetheless.
Since Larry and his wife Millie had a longstanding habit of praying as many as five hours per day, mostly for missionaries, I think he knew what he was talking about. I am equally certain that Larry and Millie got many more prayers answered that way.
“Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” James 5:16 (NKJV)
- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President
