Today’s Scripture: Psalm 109:4

“I give myself to prayer.”

We need to set aside time each day for planned, protracted, persevering prayer. We need to lay before the Lord any areas of persistent sin in our lives such as gossip, irritability, impatience, lack of love, and impure thoughts. These sins need to be the object of earnest prayer that God would work in us and enable us to deal with them. We are the ones who must deal with these sins, but the Holy Spirit must enable us to do it.

Note the dependent discipline Paul teaches in Romans 8:13: “If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” There’s the discipline of putting to death the sins of the body, but we do this “by the Spirit.” This means continual, fervent prayer for the Spirit to enable us to do our duty. As John Murray said, “The believer is not endowed with a reservoir of strength from which he draws. It is always ‘by the Spirit’ that each sanctified and sanctifying activity is exercised.”

It’s precisely because we aren’t endowed with a reservoir of strength that we need to pray daily for the Spirit’s enabling work in us. Holiness requires continual effort on our part and continual nourishing and strengthening by the Spirit. Unless you plan to pray, however, and set aside a specific time to do it, you’ll find that you won’t carry out your good intentions. If you don’t already have this practice, why not stop and make your plan now? I also find it helpful to write down on paper (for my eyes only) the specific sins I need help to deal with and the specific virtues of Christian character in which, as far as I can tell, I most need to grow. (Excerpt taken from The Discipline of Grace)

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