The Christian in Complete Armour - Gurnall - LXVIII - Direction Eleventh continued

Required readingThe Christian in Complete Armour by William Gurnall (Available from Amazon or free here) - Continue Direction Eleventh by reading Division First of the Second General Part.

My summary

Today we commence the Second General Part of Direction Eleventh on prayer from: 'Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints." (Eph. 6:18) 

This Second General Part is concerned to give an account of the several branches in the exhortation which together make up an excellent directory to perform the duty of prayer.

The First Division concerns the time for prayer: 'always'.  

Gurnall teaches us that the word 'always' suggests a threefold importance:

(i) To pray 'always' is as much as if he had said, 'pray in everything,' according to that of the same apostle in another epistle—'In every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God;

(ii) To pray 'always' may import as much as to pray in all conditions;

(iii) To pray 'always' is to pray daily.

What grabbed me

I appreciated the warning about lifeless formality in private prayer: 'Caution. Beware that thy constant daily performance of this duty doth not degenerate into a lifeless formality. What we do commonly, we are prone to be but ordinary and slighty in the doing. He is a rare Christian that keeps his course in prayer, and yet grows not customary to pray of mere course. The power of religion cannot be preserved without an outward form and order observed in its exercises; and yet very hard it is not to grow formal in those duties which we are daily conversant with. Many that are very neat and nice when their holiday suit is on their back, are yet too slovenly in wearing their everyday apparel. Thus, at a fast or on a Sabbath, our hearts haply are stirred up to some solemnity and spirituality becoming the duty of prayer, as being awed with the sacredness of the time and extraordinary weight of the work; but alas! in our everyday duties we are too slighty and slovenly.'

It's far too easy to pay greater attention to our public prayers than to our private.

Next week's reading

Continue Direction Eleventh by reading the First Distinction of Branch First of Division Second of the Second General Part.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.