“Yet you have not called on me, Jacob,
    you have not wearied yourselves for me, Israel.
23 You have not brought me sheep for burnt offerings,
    nor honoured me with your sacrifices.
I have not burdened you with grain offerings
    nor wearied you with demands for incense.
24 You have not bought any fragrant calamus for me,
    or lavished on me the fat of your sacrifices.
But you have burdened me with your sins
    and wearied me with your offenses.

“When the devil sees a man or woman who really believes in prayer, who knows how to pray, and who really does pray, and, above all, when he sees a whole church on its face before God in prayer, he trembles as much as he ever did, for he knows that his day in that church or community is at an end.” R. A. Torrey.

But who can be bothered?!

I remember reading a book in which the author referred to one particular hymn that says, ‘It is not by trying but by trusting.’ His point was, as I recall, that it’s not a matter of either/or but both/and. There are a number of words used in the New Testament which describe the intense effort disciples need to invest in the Christian life. It has been said that grace is opposed to works, not to effort. There is nothing we can achieve by our own unaided strength, but in the power of God all things are possible.

In today’s reading God says that His people have ”wearied” Him with their sins, but they have not ”wearied” themselves in seeking Him.

I am thinking about Epaphras, as he is described by Paul in Colossians 4:12,13:

 Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. 13 I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis.

It seems that one of the ways he was ”working hard” was in prayer.

In Luke 4:9,10 Jesus teaches on prayer:

 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Such prayer is certainly not lazy! We have to put our backs into it – with God’s strength of course.

“Oh, men and women, pray through; pray through! Do not just begin to pray and pray a little while and throw up your hands and quit; but pray and pray and pray until God bends the heavens and comes down.” R. A. Torrey