Is it possible for something to be easy and difficult? I think of prayer that way. Every child of God knows the ease with which our heart can instantly turn a thought into a prayer and enter into communion with God. And yet, to advance in the practice of intercessory prayer, to really participate in the work of God on earth through prayer, takes work. It is difficult.

An author I turn to regularly to find fresh motivation and help in my prayer life is D. M. M’Intyre. I’ve quoted before from his little book, The Hidden Life of Prayer. Let me share with you some more of his thoughts. Perhaps they will help you too as you seek to make advances with the Lord in prayer.

“Another explanation of the arduousness of prayer lies in the fact that we are spiritually hindered: there is ‘the noise of archers in the places of drawing water.’ St. Paul assures us that we shall have to maintain our prayer energy ‘against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.’ Dr. Andrew Bonar used to say that, as the King of Syria commanded his captains to fight neither with small nor great, but only with the King of Israel, so the prince of the power of the air seems to bend all the force of his attack against the spirit of prayer. If he should prove victorious there, he has won the day. Sometimes we are conscious of a satanic impulse directed immediately against the life of prayer in our souls; sometimes we are led into ‘aridities’ and wilderness-experiences, and the face of God grows dark above us; sometimes, when we strive most earnestly to bring every thought and imagination under obedience to Christ, we seem to be given over to disorder and unrest; sometimes the inbred slothfulness of our nature lends itself to the evil one as an instrument by which he may turn our minds back from the exercise of prayer. Because of all these things, therefore, we must be diligent and resolved, watching as a sentry who remembers that the lives of men are lying at the hazard of his wakefulness, resourcefulness, and courage. ‘And what I say unto you,’ said the Lord to His disciples, ‘I say unto all, Watch!’”