This series of articles, written by Dr Peter Masters, is taken from https://metropolitantabernacle.org/articles/remedies-for-problems-in-prayer/
We are also helped to pray by the realisation that failure to pray steals praise from God, depriving Him of His due. We may not feel as we would like to, but we still owe Him a debt of thanksgiving and worship and must not deny Him that. Even if praise is rendered with the mind only, it is entirely valid and acceptable before God, because the mind is the most important department of the soul, and the palace of faith.
Prayer Troubles in the Psalms
When we pray with the mind alone, the heart often responds, as we see in the examples of prayer in the Psalms. Some haunting words of David in Psalm 13 show his sad heart melting following an emphatic affirmation of God’s faithfulness, with the result that the shadows lifted, and assurance returned. Isaac Watts puts the sense of David’s words into a magnificent hymn of experience:
How long wilt Thou conceal Thy face?
My God, how long delay?
When shall I feel those heavenly rays
That chase my fears away?
See how the prince of darkness tries
All his malicious arts:
He spreads a mist around my eyes,
And throws his fiery darts.
How would the tempter boast aloud
If I became his prey!
And how the sons of earth grow proud
At Thy so long delay.
But hell shall fly at Thy rebuke,
And Satan hide his head;
He knows the terrors of Thy look,
And hears Thy voice with dread.
Thou wilt display that sovereign grace
Where all my hopes have hung:
I shall employ my heart in praise,
And victory shall be sung.
By the end of the psalm, praise is again on David’s lips, and we should learn that to recount God’s goodness, and to affirm His mercies, even when we feel little, often leads to a good measure of returning joy.
In Psalm 56 David follows the same procedure, expressing his trust in God in the darkest circumstances, reflecting on the goodness of the Lord and His Word, and subsequently finding his feelings joining with his mind. The psalmist’s words in Psalm 61 ring true for all believers at some time – ‘When my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.’ Once again, reflection, affirmation and thanksgiving soon lift the psalmist in heart.
Psalm 42 – unascribed – is a great example of how a clear affirmation in prayer of our belief in God’s faithfulness can lift our spirits, and Asaph’s Psalm 77 also demonstrates the value of praise to rekindle dormant feelings. We should review and rehearse in praise all our blessings, as well as God’s supreme goodness, and never lapse into forlorn prayerlessness.
To the exercise of praise we add two further measures for coldness of heart, the first being the practice of reviewing in detail the many significant answers to prayer which the Lord has given in past weeks – even months and years. We should press the mind to go back and acknowledge the ways of God, and thank Him. It may be helpful to put a list of significant answers in writing, so that these can be called to mind readily in prayer.
Earlier in this book we mentioned one remedy for ‘feelings’ problems, which is to put intercession first in our prayers. If we are cold and spiritually detached when we go to pray, to plead for others makes us less concerned about our own feelings and trials, and more focused on their spiritual needs, and this often helps us to regain fervour of heart. Our ministry of intercession is not only a means of blessing to others, but a means of blessing to us also . . . to be continued