As a young Christian, the idea of prayer was wonderful. Who wouldn’t want to talk to God? But when reality set in and my prayer sessions left me listening to crickets I got discouraged and stopped.
How do people actually hear from God?
How is it possible to “pray without ceasing?”
You can really pray for hours, don’t you run out of things to say to God?
It felt like too many unknowns for me to process…..and sadly, I stopped trying. I regret not having the courage to press through, because I missed out on years of prayers.
However, because of those silent years, I now so value prayer. I want to walk through a few common things I’ve heard from folks, and struggles I’ve faced along the way…..
1- I just can’t find time to pray?
We’re all given the same amount of time. You don’t get an extra hour, and I’m not stashing time away for a short day. We all get 24 hours, and we all distribute our time on our greatest needs and priorities. The reality is, we don’t have time to pray because we don’t believe we need to pray.
When my life started to fall apart in areas, and I needed to pray, y’all, I FOUND THE TIME. Time didn’t just magically appear out of thin air. I learned to carve out time in the shower, in the car, and while I cooked dinner. I found pockets of time throughout my day I had been wasting thinking about nonsense. When I looked for time to pray I found it.
2- Prayer feels awkward, I just don’t know what to say.
I got nothing here but yes, it’s weird….at first. The first few times you talk aloud to a person you can’t see, it can feel awkward. But then over time, you realize you’re not talking to air. You’re talking to God, and whether you can see Him or not doesn’t matter, your soul knows He’s there.
This is where faith steps in and does it’s thing. When you don’t know what to say, just start with “Thank You.” Begin by thanking God for all the blessings in your life today. Suddenly you’ll see your thanksgiving becomes praise, and your praise leads to petition, and before you know it you find a rhythm to your prayers.
3- The thought of praying for hours overwhelms me.
Me too! And while I value long chunks of time alone with God in prayer, the reality is my prayer sessions are like a constantly ongoing text message. Or as if I have God on speaker phone all day long. I’ll chat with Him in the morning about what I have scheduled and ask Him to make me aware of what He wants me to see, I’ll pause and ask Him questions about things, I’ll bring forward a friend or family member and intercede on their behalf when they come to mind, I spend all day using small little chunks of time talking to God about the big and little things of my day.
Yes, there are times for long prayer meetings, and lengthy prayers before grand events or during worship, but for the most part, I’ve learned in my life, “pray without ceasing” means I’m keeping an open line of communication with God all day long.
4- When I pray it feels like my words bounce off the ceilings and nothing happens.
I’ve been there! When I feel like my prayers are empty or stale, I step back and check my heart. Do I feel like God isn’t listening because my heart isn’t in a healthy place? Have I allowed sin to settle into the corners of my heart, and it blocks my intimacy with God?
Once I check my heart, I either discover I need to confess sin, or I need to just pray through it. A girlfriend used to tell me, “You just fake it till you make it.” While I don’t want you to “fake” your prayers, there is something important about pressing on. Just because I don’t feel like my prayers are effective, doesn’t mean they are ineffective. And quitting won’t solve your prayer problem either.
5- God doesn’t always answer my prayers, so why bother?
Really? He doesn’t answer your prayers? Is it possible He just doesn’t answer it the way you want Him to? Or, did He not answer when you wanted Him to?
God answers prayers, but He won’t give us what isn’t good for us, and we don’t always know the difference between bad and good, and good and best. God’s very clear about giving us the desires of our hearts, but He’s even more clear about our hearts needing to have desires that honor Him.
What are you praying about? Are they things that honor Him, or are they things that help you? Not that helping you is bad, but what’s your motivation behind your prayer? Then, did you pray enough? Did you pray until God answered, or did you, like me, lose heart and quit? Sometimes the answer is coming, we just quit to early. We learn about praying through from Daniel, who petitioned God for an answer to prayer. {See Daniel 10} God sent the answer to Daniel on the first day Daniel asked, but the spiritual forces in the heavenly realms fought against God’s messenger and a cosmic battle ensued. Daniel kept praying. Daniel prayed until heaven arrived with the message he was waiting on. What would have happened if Daniel quit praying the day before his answer arrived? I wonder. Maybe we don’t see God answering our prayers because we don’t pray them enough?
Friends, prayer is a process. There’s no quick fix, easy formula, magic potion that turns us from prayer wannabees to prayer warriors. If there is, I certainly haven’t found it. Building a strong prayer life takes time, patience, commitment, perseverance, and faith. Lots of faith. But God honors faith, and God loves our prayers.
It’s my desire as we walk these next weeks, that we would all become strong women of prayer. Prayer changes everything.
What are your struggles with prayer? How can I help encourage and support you? I’d LOVE to hear from you. Post a comment below, or shoot me an email. natalia@nataliadrumm.com
Don’t forget, if you haven’t downloaded your Free 31 Day Prayer Guide you can get one in the shop right now!