One of the problems we face is that we don’t like to have any dirt on our prayer. By the same token, we don’t like to have any prayer on our dirt. I don’t mean that our prayers should be unholy, of course. We pray by the Holy Spirit. But He did come down to earth at Pentecost and inhabited the likes of us, who, after all, were made from the dirt.

To restate our problem: We float our prayers in the realm of generalities and abstractions. We pray about pride, or lust, or covenant promises to a thousand generations. But we do not pray about the arrogance that walked right out of our mouth in that conversation on Tuesday with Jeff outside of Rousaers. We do not pray about that young lady, a member of the covenant community, who is showing signs of being boy-crazy and adopting her makeup habits from scantily clad Instagram influencers.

I say we do not pray about such particulars. But we do worry about them. We do try to fix them. We do talk about them with others, and mull over best approaches to rectify such problems. But, without prayer, all of those attempts to set things right, won’t do anybody any good. 

So here is the plan: If you look around and see that things are not what they ought to be, (and you will have plenty of opportunity for such an observations), then make it your first priority to talk to the Lord about it. Ask Him to fix the particular. If it is not rectified right away, bring the matter up with Him again. If it persists, then endure in prayer. If you do, then you may find that you have followed in the footsteps of our father Jacob, who wrestled with God, and prevailed.