Tim Maas Supporter Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

Perhaps it might arise (even for "religious" people) from having had a ritualized worship experience, where a service was conducted according to a set formula with no deviation or personal input, or where God was pictured as a remote, distant Being far removed from the concerns of day-to-day human life, in contrast to being able to view Him as taking a deep, personal interest in every individual, enabling people to converse with or confide in Him as with a friend.

July 26 2024 • 6 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Jennifer Rothnie Supporter Housewife, Artist, Perpetually Curious

There are many reasons someone might have difficulty praying for a season, or even continually feel that it is difficult to pray. It varies by person. Some potential reasons are:

- Listening to Satan's accusations of shame and guilt, that we don't "deserve" to talk to God or that we aren't "worthy" of God's attention. To get past this, we need to focus on our identity in Christ and the loving care God has. If He even pays attention to sparrows and flowers, how much more so does He want us to turn from Him, no matter how we are! The Prodigal Son is also a good passage to read as a reminder that God is waiting with arms open wide for us to 'come home,' no matter what we've done.

- Distraction in daily life, where our mind is pulled in so many directions from both responsibilities as well as booked free time or entertainment that we find it hard to 'slot God in.' The way past this is re-prioritizing. We shouldn't be keeping God in a box or checking Him off our schedule. Rather, our whole life service is for God, and we should see the other tasks of life as under God's management, and the good times of life with family and friends as blessings from God.

- Unconfessed sin. This is a bit of an insidious one, as we don't always consciously realize we have an unconfessed sin. But sometimes we end up with a habitual sin in our life and we start avoiding prayer because we are consciously or subconsciously avoiding the conviction we fear may come with it - and the call to repentance. This is a hard hurdle to get over quickly, but examining ourselves frequently and getting in the habit of confessing even minor sins can help.

- We don't *want* to be forgiven. This strange hurdle can happen when we prefer to wallow in self-recrimination rather than have God's forgiveness. Similar to feeling we don't deserve forgiveness, this hurdle is more about the feeling that we really need punished and if God doesn't do it, we need to do it ourselves. The way past this is remembering that He forgave even those who crucified Him, and that He forgives us so that we may go and forgive and love others. If we focus more on the purpose of forgiveness - our empathy towards others; our reconciliation with God; or ministry for the gospel; etc. Then we will be less likely to focus on how much we deserved punishment instead.

- Self-doubt, when we think we aren't "good" at praying like some friends or ministers may be, so we avoid it. The way past this is to remember Jesus taught a simple prayer - God doesn't need anything fancy, just our heart and honesty. He often calls people like Moses to do tasks we may not feel we are qualified for. There may be others with spiritual gifts like intercessory prayer or pastoral gifts that help them craft prayers that sound amazing, but all that is required is that we thank God, praise and glorify God, pray for forgiveness of sins, tell God our concerns, and thank God for who He is, what He has done, and His blessings. That doesn't have to be in flowery words. Furthermore, the more we pray, the easier and more natural it will get!

- Trusting in our own abilities too much. Sometimes, we don't pray because we think "I can handle that!" and end up putting off asking God for help because we are over-confident in our ability to fix something. And the more we do this, the more prayer falls by the wayside. God wants to know our cares even when they are small or we think we can fix it. And if we cast our cares on Him, He might answer with an even better fix than we imagined!

- We'd rather grumble than have our concern addressed. Sometimes, the difficulty in prayer comes from it 'feeling' better to rant to our friends or ruminate in our heads about a problem, or even grumble to God about it, rather than take steps to address the issue which include praying and giving that care to God. We must be actually willing to give our cares to God and not nurture those anxieties.

There are other stumbling blocks, but these are common ones.

July 29 2024 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report