I recently misread 1 Thessalonians 3:10, which says, “Night and day we pray most earnestly…” In my mind I thought it said “we pray almost earnestly”. Immediately I thought to myself, “That doesn’t sound right!” So I read it again and got the true meaning.

Sometimes, however, we are guilty of praying almost earnestly. We ask for the church to grow, as long as I don’t have to give up my regular seat on Sunday morning. We pray that God’s will would be done, as long as it doesn’t require any action on my part. We pray that someone would witness to our neighbor; someone besides me, of course. We ask God that the poor would be fed, by someone who has more time than I do.

You get the idea.

Sometimes we are quite good at praying almost earnestly.