God has revealed our options to us in his Word. To find the joy of
his presence is to exercise the gift of prayer. It is to follow his will
and walk the obedient path.
If you have temporarily lost your joy, ask the Lord to show you
the point at which you may have left the path of obedience and
turned from his presence. Think of it as a map—a treasure map—
and ask him to lead you back to the place and the time when you
may have deserted your prayer life. There will be no joy apart from
communion with him, and no communion without the practice of
prayer. I recall one stressful time in my own life when I rushed to
finish writing a book about having a close, personal relationship
with the Lord. I got so busy writing about it, I let my actual practice
of that relationship lapse. The words of my own manuscript con-
victed me. My book would never ring true if it did not grow out of
my own prayer life.
Can you think of a time when you turned away? Was it the time
you stopped bringing the Lord your heart in simple morning devo-
tionals?
Was it the time when you stopped singing those little worship
songs as you rode around in your car?
Was it a time that you stopped investing your heart in a prayerful
study of his Word?
Or maybe it was a time when you stopped interceding for friends
or family members who needed daily prayer.
These things are not on God’s giant to-do list in the sky. He’s not
keeping score on you. He merely wants you to know his joy, and
only prayer can keep your spiritual “pipeline” unclogged so that he
can pour out into your life the flood of gladness and blessings he has
for you, his child.
90 CLAIRECLONINGER