Spiritual Pride: Asking God Once Is Enough

By A. W. Tozer
 
Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving
                                                                     --  Colossians 4:2
 
I have met Christians who insist that it is wrong to
pray for the same thing twice, the reason being that if
we truly believe when we pray we have the answer the
first time; any second prayer betrays the unbelief of the
first!
 
There are three things wrong with this teaching. One
is that it ignores a large body of Scripture; the second is
that it rarely works in practice, even for the saintliest
soul; and the third is that, if persisted in, it robs the
praying man of two of his mightiest weapons in his
warfare with the flesh and the devil - - intercession and
petition.
 
For let it be said without qualification that the effective
intercessor is never a one-prayer man, neither does the
successful petitioner win his mighty resources in his
first attempt!
 
It must be noted that such a teaching will very often
result in an unconscious spiritual pride.
 
One has but to note the smug smile of superiority on
the face of the one-prayer Christian to sense that there
is a lot of pride behind the smile.  While other Christians
wrestle with God in an agony of intercession they sit back
in humble pride waiting it out. They do not pray because
they have already prayed.  The devil has no fear of such
Christians.  He has already won over them, and his
technique has been false logic.

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Yours in Christ,
Paul N. F.