A Thankless Child

How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child. -King Lear

So I have been meditating on my prayer life. Actually since Paul reminds us to pray "without ceasing" and "for all the saints," I have been meditating more on my failure to pray as I ought.

There are so many aspects to our prayer lives that I am hard pressed to begin to understand where I fall short.

Gratitude I think. I don't need the Bible to tell me that I should be constantly grateful to the source of all my blessing.

Are we simply by nature ungrateful demanding children? Is that a foolish question? How do I overcome my natural ingratitude?

Prayer. Not that I merely pray for a grateful spirit but that I merely pray. This is what I think anyhow. It seems that if I were more diligent, more faithful to (a) pray for my brothers and sisters in Christ, (b) pray for those lost souls of my acquaintance, (c) pray for the growth of the kingdom and the spread of the Gospel and those who carry it forth, (d) pray for this benighted nation and its seemingly godless leaders, and the list goes on and on and on; if I were faithful to this Christian duty, would my heart not be filled with gratitude in that I have a Heavenly Father who hears all my prayers and petitions and answers them according to His mercy and wisdom and perfect will?

I believe that is right.

So I covet your prayers that I might do a better job in that most basic of Christian duties: to pray.

P.S. Here is an interesting (and helpful) resource from one of the greatest revivalists to ever preach the Gospel, George Whitefield:

http://www.biblebb.com/files/whitefield/gw054.htm