Don't Ask Me to Say "Sufferin' Succotash"
Wednesday, January 4, 2023
“A prayerless soul is a Christless soul. Prayer is the lisping of the believing infant, the shout of the fighting believer, the requiem of the dying saint falling asleep in Jesus. It is the breath, the watchword, the comfort, the strength, the honor of a Christian. If you are a child of God, you will seek your Father's face and live in your Father's love.” – C.H. Spurgeon
When I was in elementary school, my homeroom teacher recognized a minor speech impediment I had developed and sent me to see the school’s speech teacher. All I remember from that singular session was him placing a pencil in my mouth and instructing me to curl my tongue around it. Since the ability – or in my case, inability – to curl your tongue is determined by your genes, I was discharged from his class with my slight lisp intact and untreated.
To this day, I still have trouble pronouncing some words that start with the letter S. Over the years, I have learned to compensate by pronouncing those words more slowly or by using a synonym. For example, instead of saying “statistics,” I might say “numbers” or “figures.” And, unlike Sylvester the Cat, I would never try to say, “Sufferin’ Succotash.”
In today’s quote, Charles Spurgeon elevates the lisp of a believing infant into a majestic prayer that soars through the heavenlies to the waiting ears of God. The same goes for more mature believers, whose heart cries echo equally from the battlefield or the death bed. The bottom line is this: prayer is the most powerful weapon in a Christian’s arsenal. Use it properly, and you can move mountains. Ignore it, and you are virtually powerless.
Like most Christians, my prayer life can use a lot of improvement. I try to start each day with Bible reading and prayer, and I read several online devotional messages as well. And yes, I do my best to “pray without ceasing” as I go about my daily activities. However, in comparison to the amount of time I spend online or watching TV, my designated prayer time falls embarrassingly short.
The Bible verse below sounds like a perfect New Year’s resolution to me!
“Evening and morning and at noon I will pray and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice.” Psalm 55:17 (NKJV)
- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President
