Paul began his Christian life seeing big prayers answered, and ended his sojourn on earth still believing in and seeing them. Toward his end he wrote from his prison cell,“Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think…”
He was much like the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah in this respect. When shut up in prison the old sage tells us God’s Word came unto him saying, “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”
When our departure from this life draws near we should still be seeing great prayers answered as at our beginning; if not even greater!
C.S. Lewis has a very small booklet entitled, The Efficacy of Prayer. In it he quotes, along with agreeing with, an experienced preacher he heard once. “I have seen many striking answers to prayer and more than one that I thought miraculous. But they usually come at the beginning of conversion, or soon after it. As the Christian life proceeds, they tend to be rarer. The refusuals, too, are not only more frequent; they become more unmistakable, more emphatic.”
With all respect I beg to disagree with both the quote and quotemaster as I do on several things in Lewis’ case, that is, certain beliefs he holds to.
My personal belief on the reason for barren prayers in our last years is a simple one. In my opinion the cause comes from moving from our fetal position in prayer to a standing one. That is, we lose our simple childlike belief we had at first, as children of God. We get too big for our britches, as the saying goes. We’d rather “intelligently” explain away our unanswered prayers rather than search our lives for the reason why.
When praying don’t forget the Words of the greatest authority on the Christian life who ever lived, '‘Except ye become as little children...” Or as they tell young aspiring actors, “Have the head of an adult but the heart of a child.”
by an Old Disciple