Consequences of a Prayerless Life

Matthew 26:40

And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour?

When Jesus was about to be crucified, He spent the last hours praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. He asked His disciples to pray with Him as He went a little further to pray alone. However, when Jesus returned from praying, He found the disciples asleep. Even though He rebuked the disciples, He still came back and found them sleeping. Their prayerlessness led to consequences that hurt their walk with Christ. Let me share what a prayerless life will do to any person no matter how good of a Christian they think they are.

First, prayerlessness leads to indifference toward the things of God. The disciples were more concerned with getting sleep than they were with what Christ asked them to do. You cannot be passionate and zealous toward the things of God and have a prayerless life at the same time. Prayer has a way of getting your heart in tune with the things of God. The more you avoid your prayer time, the more the things of the world will seem appealing. However, the more you spend time in prayer, the more your heart desires the things of God. Psalm 37:4 teaches this when it says, Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Your desires will change toward the things of God the more you spend time with Him in prayer.

Second, prayerlessness leads to the betrayal of Christ. Judas Iscariot didn't even go to the garden with the rest of the disciples, and that is why he had no issue with joining the crowd that hated Christ. One may wonder how a believer could ever get to the point that they would fight against the things of God, and the answer is they left their prayer life. You are bound to fight against the things of God when you leave your time with Him in prayer.

Third, prayerlessness leads to fleshly acts. Peter drew his sword and cut off the ear of a soldier when they arrested Jesus. This may seem like a heroic act, but it was actually a fleshly act. Peter did not know that he was fighting against the will of God because he had not spent time with God in prayer. You will find yourself spiritualizing fleshly actions when you don't spend time with God in prayer. Your flesh becomes stronger the longer you avoid time in prayer. You will only crucify the flesh by spending much time with God in prayer.

Fourth, prayerlessness leads to quitting the work of God. All the disciples forsook Jesus and fled in the most important hour that He needed them, and they did this because they did not pray. Many people quit their church because of their lack of prayer when the church was about to make its greatest impact. I often wonder where many churches would be had people not quit. Their excuses to quit sounded spiritual to them, but you can guarantee their excuses did not come from the prayer closet.

Fifth, prayerlessness leads to following Christ from a distance. You will find those who never get all in are those who spend very little time in prayer. You cannot spend much time in prayer and be distant from your church at the same time. Those who spend much time in prayer find themselves drawing closer to God and His church.

My friend, don't avoid your prayer time. The moment you let your prayer time slip will be the moment your Christian life will slowly start slipping away.