Call Upon the Name of the Lord

Day sixty-one

My prayer this morning was simple: Thank you for taking such good care of me and helping me through these last few weeks, and please keep doing what your doing!

My scripture study focused on Genesis Chapter 4 today.  It would be the very last verse, verse 26, that I felt I needed to research more:

"And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the Lord."

The word then seemed interesting to me, what did they do before this time?  Prior to being kicked out of the Garden of Eden they talked with God, but what did they do after the Fall?  The scriptures talk about Adam and Eve laboring and having children, but there is no mention of how they talked to the Lord until Genesis 4:26.  I even checked in Moses chapter 5 for any information.  Footnote a for Moses 5:4 refers to Gen.4:26.  Is it possible that Moses 5:4-5 is a more detailed description of the event spoken of in Genesis 4:26?  I could not confirm that, but I do know that Genesis 4:26 gives us the first record of men calling on the name of the Lord or praying, post Garden of Eden. 
  
I also found out that it is in Genesis 4:26 in which the name Lord [Jehovah] first appears. (Old Testament Student Manual Religion 301, page 107 (9-21).

It is difficult for me to believe that Adam and Eve didn't want to talk to the Lord prior to this time.  The scriptures talk of their children dividing two and two in the land, and having children of their own. (Moses 5:3).  Why wait so long?

The Bible Dictionary states "As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are his children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part (Matt 7:7-11). Many of the so-called difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship."

Adam and Eve knew that they were children of God, so why not pray? I don't know for sure if they didn't pray before this, I just know that the scriptures don't have a record of it. 

But this did get me thinking about reasons why people don't always pray.  What keeps people from praying?  Especially those who know that they are a child of God.

I can think of times in my life when anger, hurt, guilt, shame, or pride have kept me from kneeling and praying. Those feelings tainted my view of my worth and my position as a child of God. 

There might even be a little laziness in my history of non praying times.  Prayer is work and a duty, and there have been times when sleep prevailed.

There is the conflict of wills issue.  This is when you already know what the answer would be and you aren't really thrilled about it, but you know if the Lord confirms it you need to follow through. So you don't pray about it and avoid getting the confirmation. (This goes against what prayer is all about, learning God's will and aligning your will with His.)

Although our reasons for not praying may seem to make sense at the time, when we compare them to the reason we should be praying, they seem pretty lame.  It is through prayer our thoughts become more like God's thoughts and we find protection from the things of the world.  I don't know of anybody who couldn't use these blessings in their life. 

I was not able to find a definite answer to my scriptural questions today, but I did find some very good reasons to call upon the name of the Lord.  Reasons that far out way any excuses I could come up with!