The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9

 Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667) preached a sermon titled THE DECEITFULNESS OF THE HEART. And one key proof of its existence can be found in the ongoing struggle that is the human experience to pray.

We put on strange fire, and put out the fire upon our hearths by letting in a glaring sun-beam, the fire of lust, or the heats of an angry spirit, to quench the fires of God, and suppress the sweet could of incense.

 The heart of man does not have strength enough to think one good thought of itself; it cannot command its own attention to a prayer of ten lines long, but before its end wanders after something that is to no purpose; and no wonder than that it grow weary of a holy religion, which consists of so many part as make the business of a whole life.

 And there is no greater argument in the world of our spiritual weakness, and falseness of our hearts in the matters of religion, than the backwardness which most men have always, and all men have sometimes, to say their prayers; so weary of their length, so glad when they are done, so witty to excuse and frustrate an opportunity: and yet there we do not trouble ourselves in the duty, or weary ourselves, or labor violently.

We do not beg a blessing and rarely rejoice in receiving it. There is not the sense of having the greatest honor of speaking to the greatest person and greatest King of the world.

 And that we should be unwilling to do this! We are unable to continue in it, and we are so backward that we cannot return to it. Where is the gust and relish in doing it? We are unable to comprehend the value of the nature of the thing within us. We have a strange sickness of the heart, a spiritual nauseating of loathing of Manna, something that has no name. What else could explain all this but a weak, a faint, and false heart?

Yet you have not called upon me, O Jacob, you have not wearied yourselves for me, O Israel. Isaiah 43:22

George Herbert is Christianity's greatest poet (you can argue with me on that if you like!). Writing and pastoring in a small country parish in the early part of the 17th century, his CHURCH PORCH is a concise portrayal of what it means to be a Christian, and the way a believer ought to live out his life in sober and deliberate faithfulness as one bought with the blood of Christ.

The following lines from THE CHURCH PORCH (397-402) distinguish between private and public prayer, and lift up the latter as more profound for the believer's welfare. Given that public prayer meeings are are all but a thing of the past in today's church, we could use a revival of this perspective.

Though private prayer be a brave design,
Yet public hath more promises, more love:
And love’s a weight to hearts, to eyes a sign.
We all are but cold suitors; let us move
Where it is warmest. Leave thy six and seven;
Pray with the most: for where most pray, is heaven.

Don't know about you, but I could use a little more of heaven while here on earth. And if a prayer meeting is where heaven can be found, count me in!