Daily Carson 2/19/08

Here is today's quote from Carson's A Call to Spiritual Reformation (see Intro):

What [the Puritans] meant is that Christians should pray long enough and honestly enough, at a single session, to get past the feeling of formalism and unreality that attends not a little praying. We are especially prone to such feelings when we pray for only a few minutes, rushing to be done with a mere duty. To enter the spirit of prayer, we must stick to it for a while. If we "pray until we pray," eventually we come to delight in God's presence, to rest in his love, to cherish his will. Even in dark agonized praying, we somehow know we are doing business with God. In short, we discover a little of what Jude means when he exhorts his readers to "pray in the Holy Spirit" (Jude 20)--which presumably means it is treacherously possible to pray not in the Spirit. (p. 36)