Difficult Prayer
We have all had times in our lives when prayer came naturally. You didn’t have to even think about it – something would come up and ‘boom!’, you and God are simpatico and intercession and Spirit-filled prayer is just gushing forth like nobody’s business. I love those seasons. It’s beautiful when that communication between you and God is easy and natural and flowing, and you feel the power of God really at work in your life and the lives of those you’re praying for. It’s powerful.
But what happens when you fall into a season when prayer feels impossible?
A few months ago, I was in a season of overflowing intercessory prayer. Bible study came easy, prayer came easy, keeping my mind fixed on God came easy, and I was walking confidently. And then, suddenly, it was like someone cut the cord and I couldn’t figure prayer out. The world to be in such disarray with shootings and upheavals all around, and I didn’t know how to respond. Everything in my life was eating up my time more than my personal Bible study, and I was more worried about how I was going to resolve my issues than I was about talking to God about them. On top of that, all ability to pray for the needs of others, much less myself, seemed to disappear.
I was frustrated. So much was going on in the world, and I didn’t know what to pray. So much was going on in my life, and I didn’t know what to pray. And just in general, I couldn’t conjure up a coherent prayer to save my life outside of blessing my food.
But it was during this that I was looking for a verse for the week to encourage myself at work, and I came across Romans 12:12 – “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” It occurred to me that “be constant in prayer” isn’t conditional – it doesn’t say “be constant in prayer when it’s easy and flowing and you feel good and your thoughts are coherent”. It says “be constant in prayer” – period.
Why is Paul so concise about this? Because prayer is not just us talking to God. Prayer also sets into motion God’s will on this earth. “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” is not just a nice phrase to quote alongside the Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6:10). Jesus was teaching his disciples that, in prayer, you can set in motion the things of God. Prayer moves things in the spiritual realm – when we pray, things start happening on the spiritual side where God resides that will absolutely manifest on this natural side where we reside. James 5:16 says, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” Prayer is not idle or weak or ineffectual. It pulls more than its weight and gets to work in spiritual places, and its earthly appearance in this context is healing, whether that’s physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual.
But how? How do we pray when times are tough, life is hard, and prayer seems evasive?
Fortunately, God knows us human beings better than we do, and knows we wouldn’t always “feel” prayer. And He knows that He has to show me how, in every situation, by prayer, I have to go to Him (Philippians 4:6). Specifically, there are three situations:
- Praying When Times are Difficult
- Praying When Life is Difficult
- Praying When Prayer is Difficult
Over the next few posts I plan to share what I’ve learned about praying in and through difficulty in hopes of encouraging you to hold fast to prayer, even when it seems like it’s not working. When we feel on fire, prayer is one of those things that we don’t have to work at. But when times are difficult, or we’re busy, or it just seems like we can’t form “good” prayers, that is when we get tired and often let prayer fall through the cracks. But Galatians 6:9 says, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Prayer is one of those “doing good” things Paul is talking about.
1 John 5:14 says, “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” My encouragement to you is not to give up on prayer. God hears you.
Blog photo by Jack Sharp