I don't usually read Relevant Magazine. I have their RSS feed in iGoogle and glance at the headlines, and usually they don't interest me very much. For whatever reason, Relevant does not often seem... well, relevant to my Christian experience. I guess I'd rather read the testimonies of God's people that have survived 50, 100, or 300 years than the latest thoughts from the "emergent church."

But when I saw this headline, I immediately knew what he was saying. I think I've been saying the same thing to myself for some time. In fact, even as I wrote this post, I was thinking, "I don't really believe this like I say I do - if I did, I wouldn't be living like I am."

At some point, I'd like to write a follow up to "Why we need to pray," entitled "Why we don't pray." I think there's a lot more to it than the Relevant article's author talks about - but he's put his finger on a very important core issue. One of the main reasons that we don't pray is simple unbelief. We don't pray because deep down, we don't feel like it will make any difference.

I encourage you to read the Relevant article, but more importantly, to take him up on his challenge!


RELEVANT MAGAZINE: "It’s too bad we don’t believe in prayer. We will go on saying that we do and every once in while we will be reminded that we don’t, so we will try to pray more. Unfortunately, it won’t last long because deep down we don’t believe it makes a difference. We can’t hide it. Beliefs only mask the absence of action for so long.

I don’t believe in prayer.

You don’t believe in prayer, either.

If you disagree, prove it."