The Hidden Life of Prayer, Chapter 1

Once again, I’m participating in Reading the Classics Together at Challies.com. This time around, the book we’re reading is Hidden Life of Prayer by David McIntyre, and this week’s assignment was to read the first chapter.

I was planning to summarize each chapter here, but if all the chapters are like this one, I’ll be scrapping that plan. This chapter just isn’t easy for me to summarize. There were a few point made: Prayer is a given for God’s people; prayer takes effort; we should always be praying.

Let me just put up two quotes and leave it at that:

Our Lord takes it for granted that His people will pray. And indeed in Scripture generally the outward obligation of prayer is implied rather than asserted. Moved by a divinely-implanted instinct, our natures cry out for God, for the living God.

One of the signs, then, of a true believer, is the presence of a life of prayer.

[O]ne who lives in the spirit of prayer will spend much time in retired and intimate communion with God. It is by such a deliberate engagement of prayer that the fresh springs of devotion which flow through the day are fed. … [T]he true defense against insincerity in our approach to God lies in the diligent exercise of private prayer.

Now it’s on to the second chapter. Look for a post on it on Thursday of next week.