Pray Anyway

Confession: I am someone who struggles with prayer. 

I found myself having to repent several times as I wrote this because the Lord was revealing all the ways I have been failing in my prayer life. Prayer is one of the easiest disciplines to put aside. It’s one that I often find myself having to intentionally remember to do outside of church, meals, and fellowship with friends.

Do you know those women who are extremely gifted at prayer? They are typically involved in prayer ministries at church, have dozens of prayer journals filled from cover to cover, and it feels like they pray for you more than you pray for yourself. For them, prayer seems to just be a natural response to anything good, bad, boring, or otherwise. If you know a woman with this gifting, learn from them - spend time with them. They are inspirational! 

I am certainly not one of those women with that skill, so I seek those who are gifted and those who are working on it, like me. Our Deacon of Care is someone I have wonderful discussions with. She reminds me to spend time with the Lord in prayer, but not just with my head bowed; she reminds me to have stillness in the Lord, to spend time in quiet, and to go outside in the sun with God’s beautiful creation. Do I always remember her advice? No. Does she always gently remind me again? Yes. 
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If you are a woman with the gift of praying, don’t be afraid to teach us! Take courage in the gift that the Lord has given you. I hope you find these words helpful for learning about women who struggle with prayer. I hope it strengthens your ministry or future ministry. I never want to claim or expect a burden of perfection in you, but you are amazing and we need you!

Now for the rest of us…here are five reasons we may not be praying regularly:

Prayer is our active form of communication with God through the Holy Spirit and the enemy wants to impede on it. 
We tend to think of prayer as a letter that we hand write, fold up and mail out, then await a response. It’s not that at all - prayer is a direct conversation with God. When Jesus died and was resurrected, he left the Holy Spirit as a helper to dwell within us. When we decide to make Jesus our Lord the Holy Spirit guides us, convicts us, and provides a bridge of communication with God. Praying through scripture, like the Psalms, can help us speak to God when we feel resistance from the enemy. Don’t know how to pray? Even the 12 apostles had to ask! Read Luke 11:1-4 or Matthew 6:9-13. Use these verses as a guide when you don’t know what to pray, or when the enemy is trying to drive a wedge in your desire to turn to God.

When we pray, God’s perfect and holy light is shed on us and our sin wants us to hide from it. 
Light always exposes darkness (Ephesians 5:8-14). This is not meant to be something to fear but it is a hope and encouragement. The Lord already knows everything in your heart, mind, and soul. There is nothing you can hide from Him, and there is nothing He doesn’t already know! So, discover your battles with darkness through prayer and lift the burden of guilt to Christ. Recognize your sin and do not be afraid to confess it to God - He loves you!

When we have idols above the Lord, prayer gets put on the back burner. 
Idols are not silver or gold animal statues; they are anything that we devote our time and attention to above God (Habakkuk 2:18). Our work, friends, spouse, favorite TV show, and even our kids can become idols. All of these things are imperfect and will let us down at some point. God always has the best interest of His children in mind (Romans 8:28)! So, search your heart for false idols and ask the Lord (i.e. pray!) to help you draw them out.

We forget to pray when mostly everything in our lives is going well. 
We don’t feel like we “need” anything, so we forget to reach out to God. God is not a father who only responds in times of trouble. He is a father that dwells with you every moment! The truth is, we need God for everything. Matthew 18:1-6 encourages us to come to the Father like helpless children. God is sovereign over every miracle and hardship, so we should lean on His wisdom instead of leaning on ourselves. If you struggle with forgetting to pray, find an accountability partner, put reminders on sticky notes all around your workplace and home, or set alarms on your phone! 

The pain of life is too great to move, let alone to pray.
Sometimes we are truly in the depths of despair and we have trouble getting dressed or eating, let alone praying. One of my favorite quotes, which I mentioned on “The Story” page, is from Charles Spurgeon. He said, “The mind can descend far lower than the body, for in it there are bottomless pits. The flesh can bear only a certain number of wounds and no more, but the soul can bleed in ten thousand ways, and die over and over again each hour.” If you are going through a season like this, I encourage you to reach out to your Christian friends, local church body, or pastor to pray. You were not created nor meant to go through life alone. You are loved!

Feeling resistance? Pray anyway.
Have guilt or shame? Pray anyway.
Prayer’s not a priority? Pray anyway.
Simply forgot? Pray anyway.
Completely hopeless? Pray anyway.

I promise to pray for each of you, dear readers, in your journey of praying consistently. I ask that you do the same for me - that I take my own advice and remember to pray anyway!

For further encouragement in prayer, I highly recommend this article by GotQuestions.org! https://www.gotquestions.org/prayerlessness.html

Check out my free Prayer Journal, which includes a Prayer Guide. 

Need help? Talk to someone anonymously at JesusCares.com or call/text 988 Suicide & Crisis Hotline.

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