Prayerlessness — E.A. Johnston

The Sin and Consequences of Prayerlessness

I have a message to bring before you today, friends, on prayer and its lack. I believe much of our problems exist in society and in the church because of our prayerlessness. And that's the title of my message today, Prayerlessness.

Prayerlessness in Society and National Decline

And there are several aspects of this theme I'd like to bring before you right now. Number one, prayerlessness in society. America used to be a praying nation. Look at this public announcement from a newspaper in 1798, a discourse delivered in the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia on Wednesday, May the 9th, 1798, recommended by the President of the United States to be observed as a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer throughout the United States of America.

But we kicked God out of our country by prayer when we kicked him out of our public schools by doing away with prayer. And that was a sad day indeed for this country. And we've been reaping what we have sown.

America, because of her multiplied sins, is a nation of sudden death. No matter your age, you can be suddenly and quite unexpectedly taken out of this world any moment. The tragic story this week of the co-ed on her way to spring break and she and her friends make a rest stop in Mississippi and a truck tire rolls off a flatbed and runs her down like an unseen freight train.

America is the land of sudden death. If an accident won't kill you, a stray bullet will. Yet this nation refuses to turn back to the God of the Bible through repentance and prayer. We get a sense of this as seen in Daniel 9 .13.

As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us, yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquities and understand that truth. What terrible national calamity will have to take place in America before it falls on her face and turns back to God?

Prayerlessness in the Church and the Loss of Spiritual Power

Number two, prayerlessness in our churches. The day we killed off the weekly prayer meeting in our churches and replaced it with self-help groups was a sad day in our churches indeed. Prayer is the engine of the church and the lack of it is the main reason so many have run out of gas.

I like the story about a young visitor who came to see Charles Spurgeon and the great preacher asked him if he'd like to see the engine of his church. They walked down to the basement where the young visitor assumed he was to be shown the boiler room.

Instead, Spurgeon opened the Lord's door and there on their faces were his 300 deacons crying out to God in prayer. Spurgeon pointed at them and smiled, see here, the engine of my church. But we don't do that today because we decided we can get more done with money and manpower.

But in former times, the church operated on prayer and holy ghost power. But a prayerless church, it's a backslidden church. For we see the picture of a backslidden people of God in Zephaniah 1 .6, and them that are turned back from the Lord and those that have not sought the Lord nor inquired for him.

Prayerlessness in the Christian Home

Lastly, number three, prayerlessness in the home. The Christian home in former times had a family altar where the head of the home led his family in devotions to God in prayer. Ben Franklin observed of his city of Philadelphia after George Whitefield rocked it with his preaching.

Franklin observed that every home in the evening, it seemed, had a light in the window where the family was gathered in devotion to God in prayer. He remarked, it seemed the whole city had become religious.

How many wayward children came to know the Lord later in life because they had a praying mother or a praying father bathing them in prayer? Prayerlessness in the home is the main reason for broken homes with broken lives with no direction or influence from a godly parent who lives on their knees in prayer for their family.

We get a sense of the coldness toward God by lack of prayer from the people of God as seen in Isaiah 43, 22, which states, but thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob, but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel.

Repentance and the Call to Revival Prayer

Prayerlessness is a dead giveaway of a backslider. We have looked at the sin of prayerlessness today, friends, and I confess to you, it breaks my heart what's happened to our churches who've become so self-reliant that they don't need to exist by prayer.

And prayerlessness in our churches today is the main reason why so few are being saved. The sad fact is that the country won't turn back to God without an example in the church. If the church in this country continues to fail to return to the God of the Bible through repentance and heart-bending prayer, then both she and the nation will continue to drift further from God in a final apostasy.

Let us pray.