I don't feel like Praying

By Gail Dudley

Vice President of Diversity

Stonecroft Ministries

Have you ever been at a point where you just didn’t feel like praying? It wasn’t that you could not pray, but more that you didn’t feel like it. If we were to tell the truth, we have all been in this place many times.

It is easy to get caught up in our personal day-to-day activities, our to-do lists, our selfish ways, and focus on our own situations and challenges, and become so distracted that we simply do not feel like praying. We have prayed and have asked God to fix our situations and still find that we are back in the same place without noticing any change or progress so we give up and throw a pity-party—woe is me. We find ourselves in the position of not wanting to pray.  We become weak and tired, therefore, we don’t feel like praying.

Ask yourself, “What if God didn’t feel like talking to me?” There’s a thought. Prayer is a little like praise. God does not make me praise Him, but there are times that I just have to. If I don’t, I just won’t feel right.

This is the same with prayer. We should pray to Jesus every day, and more often to stay in constant communion with Him. And sometimes we have to sacrifice sleep, talking on the telephone or hanging out with family and friends. Truth: You cannot afford not to pray. It may be hard sometimes to pray, but it is something we must do in order to know the ways of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Prayer is not complicated. We think we must use fancy words, and long sentences. NO – whispering the name of Jesus is prayer. Simply saying, “Thank you” is prayer. Saying, “Father, forgive me” is prayer.  Saying, “Good morning, Jesus” is prayer.

Even when one does not feel like it – we should pray, “I bless Your Name, Jesus”!

Prioritizing Prayer

Toni Sandberg

Divisional Field Director

Southern Region

We have all heard this before, maybe we have even voiced it ourselves: “All we can do now is pray.”

Many times this is an expression of last resort.

We are good at recognizing and meeting the physical needs in our lives; need to tend to family, to keep appointments, to take a shower, to solve our problems, etc. But do we really recognize the need for prayer as a first, during, and last resort? We make our solutions the priority and not prayer. We place going to God in prayer as our last resort instead of our immediate reaction.

Charles Spurgeon once said, “Prayer meetings are the throbbing machinery of the church.” As the body of Christ, we should be driven to our knees. When we pray and also join together in prayer, we are fulfilling His calling to be witnesses and we realize how utterly dependent we are on His power.

The early believers in Acts 4 understood the priority and need of prayer. And, because of their faithfulness in going to God first, they experienced many signs, miracles, and opportunities to see God expand their mission. Acts 4:24 says, “When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God.” And Acts 4:31 is a beautiful tribute: “After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.”

We want our mission, our lives, expanded, inspired, and anointed. Know that we need to prioritize our prayer life. This means implementing prayer as a first response in our everyday lives. We need to continue to pray, pray often, pray deeply, pray dependently—as your life depends on it.