EXCUSES TO KEEP FROM PRAYING
Have you ever wondered why it often seems hard to pray? We get distracted, other things interfere, excuses or doubts pop into our mind and we seldom seem to pray as we should. Pray should be easy and simple, right? You just talk to God, who loves you and wants to answer your prayers. What could be easier? Yet consistent, persistent prayer is a battle. It seems as if some force recognizes the effectiveness of prayer and wants us to keep us from it. Yes, the forces of hell will do anything to keep us from praying. Satan uses lies, misinformation, even our own laziness, to keep us from connecting with God as we should. He uses false teachers and busy schedules and even television to keep us from praying. He’ll do anything, even tell us the truth, if it will negatively impact our prayer lives. Here are some truths Satan reminds us of get us to back off on our prayers.
“I’m not worthy of God answering my prayers.” While this is a true statement, our unworthiness has nothing to do with God’s love and care for us. Psalm 130:3 tells us if the Lord should mark iniquities, no one would stand. God is not dealing with perfect people. All have sinned; there is none righteous, no not one (Romans 3:10,23). The wonderful old hymn says, “Christ receives sinful men, even me with all my sin.” Being unworthy is no excuse. A favorite passage of mine is Psalm 103:14 which says “He Himself knows how we are made; He is mindful that we are but dust.” What can you expect of dust? Yes, we are unworthy, but God knows it and doesn’t expect us to make ourselves worthy. The One who created us knows we are made of humble stuff. He is under no illusions about us. When we sin, the only one surprised is us. What a wonderful Savior we have.
“God knows everything, so He already knows what I need.” In Matthew 6:8, Jesus said, “For your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” And what did Jesus do next? He proceeded to give us the Lord’s Prayer to encourage us and teach us how to pray. Besides, prayer isn’t to inform God about what we want Him to do, it’s to affirm our trust in Him, listen for His guidance and leading, gain His peace and grow in intimacy with Him. When you pray, don’t tell God what you want Him to do, just share your heart with Him and let Him come up with the solution. Pray the problem, not the solution! His solution is always so much better, and sometimes we miss it because we are expecting Him to do what we tell Him to do.
“Your faith is weak, not strong.” Yes, but in Luke 17:6 Jesus says even faith as small as a mustard seed can achieve miracles. So, the question becomes not how big my faith is, but whether I use it. Jesus asked the panicked disciples, “Why did you fear? Where is your faith?” (Mark 4:40). Faith is like radioactivity in that a little goes a long way.
“Sin blocks prayers, and I’m a sinner.” That’s very true (Isaiah 59:2), but “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us of our iniquities” (John 1:9). So, there is no excuse for any of us to go forward one more minute with sins weighing us down (Hebrews 12:1) and blocking our prayers.
These are all true statements, but none of them are good reasons to not pray. Don’t be surprised when prayer is a battle, because Satan and his forces want to keep us from it since it is so important and powerful. I’’s been said that prayer is not preliminary to the battle, it IS the battle (Leonard Ravenhill). Most of our battles are won or lost before we fight them. Our prayer, or lack of it, is often the determining factor. Don’t neglect your prayer life. Fight the battle of prayer before you fight your daily battles in life. It’s key to victory.
James 5:16 The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
What lies do you believe that undermine your prayer life? What does God’s truth say about them?
cto Rev. Dr. JERRY SCHMOYER
Christian Training Organization
Jerry@ChristianTrainingOrganization.org
ChristianTrainingOnline.org
(India Outreach, Spiritual Warfare, Family Ministries, Counseling)
Copyright © 2024