When you stop praying

Wade Holloway doesn’t pray. Grace is said at every meal in his house, and while his family bows their heads, he stares at a knot in the pine table until it’s over. He doesn’t argue about it or make a speech. He just keeps the door shut.

I know that silence, because I’ve lived it. I’ve heard the Holy Spirit knock and ignored it. There were seasons I did worse than ignore it. I fought it.

Here is what I didn’t understand while I was doing that: my silence never changed His faithfulness. “For he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5, KJV). Hebrews doesn’t say He’ll stay as long as we keep up our end. It says He will never leave.

That’s the grace that doesn’t wait for us. Through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary, my sins are no longer counted against me. I don’t have to carry that burden to judgment day, and neither do you.

If you’ve gone quiet on God, you don’t need a perfect prayer to start again. You just have to quit holding the door shut.