Helplessness Acknowledged by Praying
Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor (ptochos – utterly helpless and destitute, no hope apart from a handout) in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus says we are blessed if we recognize and acknowledge our true condition of helplessness because then we will cry out to Him for help and rely on Him in our neediness.
Jerry Bridges in his book The Discipline of Grace says, “Prayer is the tangible expression of our dependence (on Christ). We may think we’re dependent on Christ, but if our prayer life is meager or perfunctory, we thereby deny it. We’re in effect saying we can handle our spiritual life through self-discipline and our innate goodness. Or perhaps we’re not even committed to the pursuit of holiness.”
C.S. Lewis understood this when he said, “I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time – waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God – it changes me.”
When you are faced with a challenge, a problem, a need, whatever its size and nature, is your first thought to pray or does that tend to come after you’ve tried ‘everything else’?
May God continue to change us today to be a people who pray.