Torch, Fall 1996

ometimes I simply don't feel like praying. Can you relate to that? "Lord, I'm just too tired, too busy; I've got too many other things to do-and they're important, too!" I suppose most of us have reasoned with ourselves and the Lord in that way at some time or another. There always seems to be something that conflicts with praying. And so the battle is enjoined. The flesh and the Spirit are at it again, vying for my obedience. The struggle itself isn't all that new; it's simply a new arena, another issue, a fresh outcropping 6 Torch of the competition that exists between these two opponents who dwell within me. It's really what Paul was talking about when he wrote, "I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish" (Galatians 5: 16-17, NKJV). I tend to weary of the struggle. "Oh no, here we go again. Why is it always so hard to do what you know you ought to do, what others depend on you to do, what you know good and well God expects you to do?" Praying certainly doesn't come natural the struggle testifies to that clearly. So what do believer has "two families under one roof' within him and should