So Why is Prayer so Hard? (Part 2)

Last time, we discussed how prayer is part of having a relationship with God. But if you’re anything like me, you might ask, “Why is it so much harder to pray to God than to talk to other people?”

Let’s look at four reasons that make it hard to pray. (Disclaimer: These are not all-encompassing. They’re just the ones that have been on my mind the past few weeks!)

1.    You can’t see Him. It’s easier to talk to someone who is right in front of you that can audibly talk back to you. We have to depend on what we believe and not what we see. God is with us, and He does hear our prayers.

2.     We are so determined to do things on our own. Admitting that I need help, not just any help but supernatural intervention, grates against the grain of my independence. The act of praying says, “I am dependent on God.” During prayer, you are not doing anything about your situation. You are simply asking God to move. Other “Christian deeds” involve doing something. When you read the bible, you’re learning more about God and His word. When you fellowship with other Christians you’re actively getting to know, care, and serve them. They all involve actions, and we get to feel a sense of doing and accomplishment for completing them. With prayer, there is no doing. There are no tangible results unless you believe that God moves. In our I-can-determine-my-own-destiny-and-make-a-difference culture, prayer admits inadequacy. Prayer says, “God, I want to love other people, but I have no idea how and need you to pick me up out of my selfishness and change me to care.”  Prayer says, “I’m feeling overwhelmed with financial worries and find myself looking for monetary security instead of God as my refuge. Help me remember that You are faithful and that the whole world is already Yours to give.” Pausing our to-do list and stopping our work to pray is no small feat, but it is one that is essential to the Christian life. We constantly need to be reminded that we can’t do it on our own, and we need our God to work.

3.     That’s just sitting down to pray. Actually praying is hard, because you are standing in the presence of the Holy, Almighty God-King. You can’t hide before Him. Our Father created us and knows every bit of us. He reads hearts and minds and is not fooled by our smiles or carefully crafted words. We have to face our sin and face the One we are ultimately sinning against. It’s here where we often put our human ideas of love onto God. We think that God is out to punish us for what we’ve done wrong. We think that God will get so tired of us repeating the same sin and will one day have enough and disown us. We act like we’ll come before Him in prayer, and He will reject us. But this is not our God. John reminds us, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love” (1 John 4:18). Don’t let fear or doubt stop you from going to God. God knows us down to the dirtiest depths of our hearts, but that doesn’t change his love for us. In fact, it is for our failures that Jesus willingly lay down his life to completely pay for our sins – past, present, and future. And now, God shines his face on us, seeing us for who we honestly are, and it is never too late for us to turn to Him.

4.     What happens when we pray to God, and it does not seem like He’s listening? We often come to God with certain prayers that we continue to pray for again and again. God, please save my beloved family member. God, help me to do well in school (for your glory). God, my family member is sick. God, I’ve been struggling with the same sin, and I’m not changing. And with each unanswered prayer, our faith wears down, bit by bit. Before we know it, we pray without expecting any answer. We pray, but we don’t believe God hears or cares.  We feel like God isn’t listening because He doesn’t give us what we want. If this is where our prayer lives end, we’ve missed out on the life-changing purpose of prayer. When we pray, our desires, hopes, worries meet God, and He prunes our desires to be more like His. God does hear, and He does care. James 4 explains this more (click here). If prayer is merely a litany of our wants, of course it’s going to feel impersonal! Listen to God – He does have answers for the difficult questions. And He always has a grander, deeper plan than we can imagine.

Let’s come before God knowing that we need Him, knowing that He loves us and answers our prayers.