A story is told about a famous organist who, in the 1880s, traveled the country giving concerts. Those were the days of the reed organ and large ones required someone besides the organist to pump air into the organ, so in every venue this famous organist would hire a boy to pump air into the organ during the concert.
After one performance the enthusiastic young boy said to the organ player, “We had a great concert tonight, didn’t we?” “I had a great concert,” replied the organist rather arrogantly.
The next night, in the same concert hall with the same boy pumping, the organ faded out right in the middle of the concert. The boy who had been pumping the organ had stopped. He grinned and called out to the organist, “We aren’t having a very good concert tonight, are we?”
Like that organ, we are incapable of playing the music God has given us to play without the Holy Spirit pumping the breath and word and life of God into us. Which is why we cannot neglect prayer, among other spiritual disciplines.
Author Bob Hopkins once wrote the following about prayer: “At all times we need to be talking to the Father, looking and listening for His reply, so that it is our relationship with Him that leads the way. Only God has the requisite knowledge, authority, power, and love to transform lives, so it is on God we must rely for our understanding, strength, confidence, and assurance.”
If we get too arrogant, like the organist, and begin to think that we don’t need the Spirit’s help, we will find ourselves running out of the spiritual energy we need to live the spiritual life we were created to live.
Keep on praying, and thanks for reading!
rusty tugman 