Lord’s Library contributor Jared Helms offers commentary on the dangers of neglecting prayer and how to avoid it. Check out Jared’s YouTube channel and two blogs: A Light in the Darkness and Blind Faith Examples, or send him a reader response email. Lord’s Library’s Ministry Leaders Series is a collection of contributed articles written by ministry leaders on key Christian topics.
The results of prayerlessness have already been suggested, but let them be drawn out here and plainly seen by all. Let us first admit that the Western church of our time has indeed neglected this discipline. Let us concede also that such neglect must have a depressing effect upon earnest God-seeking souls.
In A Call to Spiritual Reformation, author D.A. Carson said: “What is both surprising and depressing is the sheer prayerlessness that characterizes so much of the Western church. It is surprising because it is out of step with the Bible that portrays what Christian living should be; it is depressing because it frequently coexists with abounding Christian activity that somehow seems hollow, frivolous, and superficial.”
Being one of the two greatest sources of divine power, the absence of prayer leads to an absence of power, which then leads to a dramatically reduced effectiveness. Prayer is reliance on God, where there is less prayer there is less reliance on God and more reliance on something else. No matter what else is being relied upon it is an idol.
The Dangers of Neglecting Prayer
Prayer works against idolatry naturally, and so where it is neglected idolatry is naturally promoted. This also promotes other sins, and so virtue is reduced all around. Evil multiplies. When we do not talk to God regularly it is easy to forget God is there.
This does not remain confined to a single life, but through that one life enters the life of the church. The member who does not pray works against all good in the church. John 15:5 shows us why as such a member has been deprived of the life-giving and sustaining communion with Christ, Father, and Spirit: “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”
So, they decay towards death and become a burden.
In Spurgeon at His Best, it is recorded that C.H. Spurgeon said: “A prayerless church member is a hindrance. He is in the body like a rotting bone or a decayed tooth. Before long, since he does not contribute to the benefit of his brethren, he will become a danger and a sorrow to them. Neglect of private prayer is the locust which devours the strength of the church.”
All of this is uncomfortable, and the discomfort is aggravated greatly by the strain of trying to do so many things without the abiding grace of Christ, the care of the Father, or the aid of the Holy Spirit. Prayerlessness suggests comfort through neglect of discipline but delivers the opposite.
In The Mystery of Providence, John Flavel said: “That which begins not with prayer, seldom winds up with comfort.”
It should be incredibly surprising if any good comes from prayerless work, for such work has cut itself off from the source of all good. See James 1:17: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
If we find good lacking, James would suggest that in the first place, we haven’t asked for it See James 4:2: “Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.”
As we have suggested, this is depressing for the earnest saint, and those who seek God. Discouragement and doubt build upon each other increasing the strain.
Allowed to continue, the end is sure deadness of spirit. To sum up, in the matter where there is no prayer evil prevails, goodness declines, God is denied, and all people suffer. Neglect of prayer leads nowhere but Hell.
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- The Dangers of Neglecting Prayer & How to Avoid It - February 23, 2025
- The Dangers of Manipulative Prayer & How to Avoid It - February 23, 2025
