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Eric
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Is it a sin to fail to pray?
2 stars|4 comments|June 16, 2008|514 reads
 
12:23 ...Far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you....

I read this a few weeks ago and this pierced me to the heart.  The context of the scripture above is the prophet Samuel speaking to Israel, a summary of Samuel's life, a committed life serving the Lord.  Israel asked Samuel to ask God for a king to rule over them, rejecting God Himself as their King.  This was a grevious sin of Israel and God punished them for this.  Repentant, they recommit themselves to God.  Samuel instructs them in godly living: what to do that will please God.  In the middle of this instruction, he speaks of his own responsibilities:  to pray unceasingly for Israel -- to do otherwise is to sin.  

Is that just for Samuel or is that for all of us?  Paul gives very similar concluding remarks to the Christians in Thessalonica in his first letter to them:

Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophesying, but test everything; hold fast what is good, abstain from every form of evil.

I think Samuel's advice applies to us.

Remember how when somebody asks you to pray for them and you say "sure!," but never actually get around to doing it?  Later, they come to you and thank you for praying for them?  You know how dirty that feeling is?  That's guilt from sin on two counts: one for false testimony (not upholding your end of the contract), and two for failing to pray for them.

Conversely, do you know how fantastic it feels to pray for someone and they come back to you with reports of answered prayers?  You've participated in the will of God.  You were used by God to accomplish His divine purpose.  How awesome is that?!  It can make you positively giddy.  To not pray is to miss out on this.

Jesus taught His disciples how to pray and this is recorded twice in the Bible (Matthew 6, Luke 11).  Prayer is important to God.  I'm sure books have been written on all the instances of prayer in the Bible.  I cannot do such.  But one thing I learned in my daily reading of God's Word is that praying for others isn't simply optional, but commanded by God, and to neglect this duty is to sin.


 
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Paul Hospodar
 Paul Hospodar
June 24, 2008

Forgive me for not having the scholarly answers here, just a paraphrase...but there are sins of omission, sins of 'hamartia', or 'missing the mark', and outright transgressions against the God (my pastor could say this much better).

God KNOWS that life gets in the way, but that shouldn't be an excuse, any more than sinning because we've received grace.

We're NOT talking to the Lord.  Now, rote prayer probably isn't what is meant, nor is thought-less or spirit-less prayer (a zombie muttering words).  So, that kinda prayer isn't helpful either...

But I would say, think of it sympomatically:

You aren't praying - how are you connected to the Lord?

Are you reading your Bible?  If you are, how can you not be in a prayerful state - are you reading it like a novel or textbook?  

Prayer does NOT need to be some formal procedure but rather connecting with and communing with your Lord...if you're not doing that, then you must be doing something opposite or omitting it - and that IS a sin, I'd say. 

Eric
 Eric
June 30, 2008
Great comment!  Thanks!!!!
Mike n Laura
 Mike n Laura
June 30, 2008

This is the coolest thing...

"do you know how fantastic it feels to pray for someone and they come back to you with reports of answered prayers?"

Giddy is the right word for it too. Prayer is our opportunity to partner with God in good works that we ourselves could never do. It's an amazing privilege. Prayer a duty, a responsibility? I don't think so. In Samuel's case (on the contrary), it was in fact a duty, part of the position description for his place of spiritual authority, right?

That being said, if we don't pray, I'd call into question the quality of that relationship with the Savior. This after all seems to be the point of our existence, to be a companion of God's. Right? 

Eric
 Eric
June 30, 2008

I think a good case could be made that we are ambassadors of Christ, priests, and in a sense, prophets as much as Samuel was (except not in a revelatory manner), so I think that we are indeed commanded to pray just as much as Samuel was (although Samuel's contemporaries may not have been).  Duty?  Yes.  Privilege?  Also, yes!  As a woman at church said to me yesterday, as regenerated Christians, we do not do good because we have to, but because we want to.  And that includes prayer.

Thanks for your comments, Mike.  I thought you'd enjoy this post :)