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The Challenges of Prayer |
By Lance Witt
To be able to communicate with almighty God is a privilege and prayer is powerful when accompanied by faith and energized by the Holy Spirit. Then why do we have such a difficult time making prayer a consistent spiritual habit?
Several years ago, more than 17,000 members of a major denomination were surveyed about their prayer habits while they were attending seminars on prayer for spiritual awakening. It is probably safe to say that these men and women had an above average interest in prayer. Those surveys revealed that the average attendee prayed less than 5 minutes a day.
So, if you struggle with devotion in your prayer life, you are not alone.
From my own experience and dealing with thousands of Christians, I want to list what I believe are the major prayerbusters.
- Time pressures (busyness)
Many times over the course of my Christian journey, I have committed to being more faithful to prayer. Yet, invariably it was not long until the demands of life turned my good intentions into another unfulfilled commitment.
Without being proactive, without developing a plan, and without intentionally cultivating a passion for prayer, your journey in prayer will continue to feel like a roller coaster.
Anyway you cut it, a key ingredient in your prayer life is time; not throwaway time, but quality time. Time must be set aside for contemplation, meditation, and reflection—unhurried, uninterrupted time.
The archenemy of spiritual authenticity is busyness. Just as busyness is detrimental to the intimacy I desire with my wife, the same is true spiritually. - Inability to be quiet
We live in a culture that is fast-paced, noisy, and constantly grabbing for your attention. Most of us suffer from information overload. The result is that when we do sit down to have a few moments of prayer and conversation with our Heavenly Father, we find our minds distracted and pulled in many directions.
If we were honest, many of us would admit that quiet and silence is a little uncomfortable for us. Yet, times of quiet are essential to a healthy prayer life.
Even Jesus found it necessary to withdraw. “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” Mark 1:35 (NIV)
Strength comes out of solitude. It is in solitude that you find your soul refreshed and your love deepened for the Lord. Whenever I withdraw, even for a few minutes or an hour, afterwards I always wonder why I don’t do this more often. - We doubt anything will actually happen when we pray
We tend toward impatience in our world. We don’t like to wait. We like the words “instant” or “quick” or “now.”
I also believe that this doubt is often there because our prayers are general and non-specific. When our prayers are “Bless the world” or “Be with our family”, it is hard to have a sense that those prayers were answered. When we begin to see our specific prayers answered by God, then our faith begins to soar and so does our motivation to pray. - Self-sufficiency
If we were honest, most of us would have to admit that prayer feels passive. When people are in need, you will often hear Christians refer to prayer in passing but then look for some more active way to “really” help.
We must come to the place where we believe that prayer is the most active thing we can do.
We value being able to fix the situation, solve the problem, and work hard to overcome life’s challenges. For many of us, prayer feels like we are not doing much and it strikes at our self-sufficiency. Prayer demands that we call upon God to move into action rather than moving into action ourselves.