Dry prayers

I came to the Lord today with dry prayers. I almost didn't come.

I came with faith weak as a smoldering ember, unworthy of a Christian. I don't know what the cause is: some unconfessed sin in my life? A general lack of a cultivated spiritual fervor that has caught up with me? Indigestion?

I almost skipped the whole thing till I could meet with better feelings, but recognized that as straight from the Enemy's playbook.

I thought of David Peterson and Bubba Fahrbach in prison and the way they pray. That helped a lot. I considered (still without much of what psychologists call "affect") that the Lord does not call us to gin up emotion; he just calls us to faithfulness.

I took encouragement from the fact that I can come to the throne in the name of Jesus, God's beloved Son whom He will never turn away, no matter how ugly the Name-bearer is.

I parsed the spheres of responsibility correctly: there are the covenant stipulations I am responsible for (i.e., to pray), and then there are the things God is covenanted to do (i.e., to give the Holy Spirit's joy).

God is honored by prayers offered in exhilaration. I am hoping that He is also honored by prayers brought in desert dryness --- where the alternative was no prayer at all.