Long ago there was a man named Naaman who suffered from the terrible disease leprosy. When he was told that a certain Jewish prophet named Elisha could heal him, he decided to pay a visit to this man in the hopes of being healed from his disease. As an indicator of how much Naaman wanted to be healed, consider the gifts he took with him to give to the prophet: 750 pounds of silver, 150 pounds of gold, and ten changes of clothing (2 Kings 5:5). He was prepared to pay a fortune to the man who could cure him, but his pride almost got in the way of his healing. When Naaman arrived at the prophet’s house, he received instructions to go and wash in the Jordan river seven times. At this, Naaman was furious. “…Naaman was angry and went away, saying, ‘Behold, I thought he would come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.’ …So he turned and went away in a rage” (2 Kings 5:11-12). Naaman’s expectations for a dramatic healing meant that his pride was injured by what he apparently considered to be an insultingly simple command: go and wash in the little, muddy Jordan river. Only when Naaman’s servants talked some sense into him did he go and do as he was instructed, and to his delight he was completely healed of his disease.

Like Naaman, our pride has a way of getting in the way. Pride has a sinister way of creeping into our lives in very subtle ways. We may comfort ourselves that we are not particularly braggadocious, that we don’t always talk about our own accomplishments, or that we live modestly and below our means. Though all those things may be true of us, pride can still sneak in the back door and wrap its tendrils around our heart. One sly way that pride infects us is through habitual prayerlessness. This manifestation of pride is hard to notice because it shows up not as the presence of something bad but as the absence of something good. When we do not pray, we are essentially telling God that we think we can do life on our own. Failing to ask God for help reflects a misplaced trust in our own abilities and a lack of awareness of our need for God. Prayerfulness, on the other hand, forces us to humble ourselves and confess our utter dependance on God. Prayerlessness, then, is a litmus test for pride. If we are habitually prayerless we are refusing to honor God by asking him for his aid, forgiveness, and guidance. In a word, if we are prayerless, we are overcome by pride. Ask God to forgive you of any tendencies to prayerlessness and ask him to help you increase your commitment to praying daily. When you do, you will be blessed and God will be honored.