O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. The second half of the first verse of the old hymn, “What A Friend We Have In Jesus” could explain why American Christians are struggling so much today. The lyrics was wrote by Joseph M. Scriven as a poem in 1855 to comfort his mother who was living in Ireland while he was in Canada Char les Crozat Converse in 1868. William Bolcom composed a setting of the hymn.[1] Though now more than a century later this song surely tells us why there are so many things going wrong around us. We just don’t pray enough. We don’t trust prayer.
This week multiple issues and circumstances have almost overwhelmed me with the result coming to the fight against discouragement. Can a person get so discouraged they can’t pray? Nehemiah faced extreme discouragement in his life when he had left a perfect job in a prosperous land. He left family, relationships and comfort to do the work of God. In all of this it would seem that he would be rewarded with great success, right? That is not how it came to pass and that is not how it comes to pass today. He was attacked by so-called good-doers that had the motive to destroy him. This brought great discouragement.
So in his despair and loneliness what did Nehemiah do? He prayed. The Bible says in Nehemiah 4:9 (ESV) And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night. Discouragement and disappointment can drive us to the point we see no hope, even in prayer. However, we can not stop there; we can not allow things to get to that point. Just like the old hymn of the late 1800’s, this is our only hope. This is the substance that protects, sustains and enhances life, our life with the Almighty God. So my encouragement for you today is to pray, pray and never stop praying even when you don’t see why, how or even when you don’t feel like it. What a Friend we have in Jesus, let’s continue to pray and converse with our Only Hope!
Lord Jesus help us in our weakest hour, help us in our most independent hour, helps us to pray. Amen.
[1] Wikipedia: Found on line at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_a_Friend_We_Have_in_Jesus accessed March 6, 2011.
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