The Praying Hands

“To really sense the fullness of God’s presence in our lives, we have to be alone with Him everyday. The more time we spend alone with God, the more powerful our prayers will be when we pray with others.”

This begs the question, why is prayer so hard?

A) For me, prayer seems boring. Sometimes I begin with vigor, but run out of steam very quickly. I’m talking after like 2-3 minutes, my mind is just elsewhere. I loose focus and can’t concentrate enough for it to excite me.

The book “The Power of Praying Together” offers a 10-Step prayer process, which at first glace can seem lengthy and burdensome, but the more I explored this issue, the more I was convinced that a process may help me keep my focus and guide me if I get sidetracked.

B) I typically have trouble being genuine with the words I say (and the words others say) and genuine with my feelings towards who/what I’m praying about (or who/what someone else is praying about.) I’m reluctant to pray out loud in groups or in front of people. Mostly because my prayers seem forced and unnatural, often filled with meaningless phrases and “christianese”.

Perhaps this comes out of selfishness (I want it to benefit me) or that I’m passive (I am just participating in prayer not to cause trouble) or it’s a religious tradition (we are required to pray). When I’m praying alone, I know I have trouble with being genuine because of my selfishness and religiosity; it is hard to enter into prayer with an earnest heart. With practice and patience, I know my prayers will become more effortless. However, these feelings are tripled when I listen to someone else pray because I feel I can hear straight through the words to the heart and if it’s not sincere, then my heart closes up. Maybe I’m jaded, I’ve seen many people use prayers to fill space or as a transition, which are often pointless and filled with rhetoric. Because I am critical of this, I’m overly aware of how my prayers sound and I desire my prayers to always be authentic.

C) I find myself worrying about whether I’m praying in God’s will or out of selfish motivation. This occurs more frequently when praying for people I don’t know or in groups, but it even happens when I’m the star of the show. Am I truly praying for God’s will to be done in the situation and for his Kingdom’s power to be shown or am I praying for the answers I want for myself? James 4:3 says, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”

By spending more time alone with God and increasing His presence in my life, I believe my motivations will gradually shift off of myself and onto His perfect plan. Regardless of whether I know what that is and without simply praying “your will be done” for everything, the act of coming to God in prayer is in itself denying a selfish motivation to neglect to pray. “The key is wanting what He wants. When we do that, we end up doing His will and we find our prayers answered.”

D) For prayer to be meaningful and powerful, it just takes too much time.

This is frustrating for me, because as I’ve explained above, the more we’re alone with God, the more powerful our prayers will be. However, that alone time with God does not come easily. As my friend pointed out and as I’ve known my entire life, prayer doesn’t have to be long and winded. I should start small. I am beginning by reading a written prayer that moved me out of a book. I trust that God is waiting to hear my voice and wants more than anything a few minutes to communicate with me. It is an act of self control, which I believe God will bless by showing me His power, which I hope will entice me to pray more.

E) There are no immediate results from my prayers.

With other disciplines there are results, for instance reading my Bible - I automatically know more than when I started or volunteering – I can physically see the people I help. With prayer, there seems to be (at least for me) few immediate results. They may not be immediate, but I’m trying to remember that the results are there, maybe just gradual or unexpected. I do know that when my motivations are pure, God has responded. When I simply come to Him and actually believe that He hears me, He moves. When I’m focused, I feel better when I pray than when I don’t. It’s hard to trust something is working when you can’t see the results; this is why, perhaps, prayer doesn’t receive the attention it deserves.

Throughout it all, there are a few things to remember:

1. “God and I are on the same side and my praying is actually working in partnership with Him to see His will done on earth.”

2. “When we pray we are applying Jesus’ victory through the cross, taking the rule away from Satan and establishing the rule of God.”

3. “Recognize that God wants to do above and beyond what we think is possible. This knowledge makes us courageous to ask God to do great things in us, through us and toward us.” Ephesians 3:20 says, “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us.”