Are you feeling like your faith is weak? Has it been hard to read your Bible? Do you struggle with doubt or fear? My pastor kick-started his sermon today by saying that the best way to renew your faith in God is through prayer. If you think about it, having genuine conversations with someone is the best way to build a friendship. You wouldn’t just write letters, or solely correspond via text, if you wanted to really build a strong relationship with someone. Of course, these are great ways to bond and get to know more about a person, but building strong and lasting connections are largely driven by verbal communication. It’s more vulnerable, tends to be less scripted, you can hear the emotion in someone’s voice and understand what tone they’re using – it’s more personable and feels more real. It’s the same with our relationship with God in many ways. Reading God’s Word is so valuable to learn more about Him and learn from Him and understand how to grow as His children – but talking with God through prayer is like a whole new experience. It allows you to establish a unique connection with Him and develop a deeper relationship with Him. Prayer is vital to a Christian’s life. We can read Scripture all we want and try to live out God’s commandments the best we can, but if we’re not asking God for His wisdom and direction and love, it’s going to be very difficult to stay on the right path. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us what He wants us to learn through His Word and convict us of things we need to confess and change. We need His guidance in our hearts to produce genuine acts of faith. Prayer is so important… so why does it seem so difficult sometimes?

Follow along with these verses:

• Matthew 6:5-15
• James 5:13-20
• Romans 8:26
• Ephesians 6:18
• Ephesians 5:19
• Philippians 4:6
• Romans 8:34

I think one reason prayer can feel so difficult is because we try to be impressive or eloquent in our words and phrases, sometimes without even realizing it. It just feels like so much effort to pray because we’re trying to orchestrate the “perfect” prayer! We think that if we don’t say our prayer just the right way, God won’t listen to us or He will think we’re not being genuine enough. If we happen to be praying in a public setting, we may also be worried about what others think of our prayer – “I have to pray about really thought-provoking things, I have to use big words, I have to say God’s Name a certain way, I have to pray long enough but not too long,” etc. All of these worries take away from the true meaning of prayer and distract us from the fact that we are communicating with our Heavenly Father, King of the Universe! He knows us so deeply and loves us infinitely. Scripture says that even when we don’t have the words to pray, or know how to pray, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us!

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

Romans 8:26 ESV

We don’t have to worry about saying the right words or the right amount of words to be impressive to other people – we just have to be seeking the Lord and bringing our heart before Him. Prayer has so much power in a group environment when people of faith raise their voices to the Lord together (Matthew 18:20), but it is also such an intimate and precious time to spend with our Father. We shouldn’t be praying in public just to make ourselves look impressive or brag about our “level of righteousness.” Jesus talks about this concept in His teachings that are recorded in Matthew 6:5-15.

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

Matthew 6:5-8 NLT

It can also be hard to pray when we’re living in an “extreme” situation- either things are going really well or things are going really awful. When things seem to be going really well, we might be at a loss of what to pray for because there’s nothing to request from God. If we don’t have any requests, we don’t need to pray…. right? Oh friends, God is not a vending machine! He isn’t there to just dole out favors for us when we need something. Of course He’s there to help us and guide us, and He will certainly provide for those who ask in faith! But if we’re just going to God when we want something from Him, that doesn’t really seem like a genuine relationship. Then when things are going really badly in our lives, it might feel hard to pray because we feel guilty for asking God to help us out when we’ve essentially ignored Him when life was good (yep… personal experience). Or perhaps we might be blaming Him for the bad things that are happening to us so we simply don’t want to pray because we’re harboring anger in our hearts toward Him.

Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven.

James 5:13-15 NLT

We must pray to God always, asking Him for guidance in the hard times and praising Him for His blessings! Don’t avoid bringing your requests to God – pray about them (Philippians 4:6). When God answers you, don’t complain about His provisions or guidance! We must replace our bad attitudes with prayer, or we will continue to have bitterness and despair growing in our hearts. We also must not take God’s blessings for granted – praise Him always and give Him the glory when things are going well!

A third reason we may avoid prayer is because we don’t want God’s conviction in our lives. We don’t want things to change in our lives, so we half-heartedly read Scripture and say a few rote prayers before meals or bedtime. We must remember that when we pray, we are coming before an almighty God Who has unlimited power and authority over all creation, body and spirit. He has created us in His image and He has provided a way for us to spend eternity with Him! It’s so easy to live in an earthly-focused way and lose our awe for God. I know I’m guilty of falling into that pattern. Sometimes I feel so on fire for God, and then other times I feel like a fraud because I get so distracted with material things and earthly gain. But that is the wonder and glory of God! He does not choose to save us because we are perfect and do/say all the right things. He chooses to save us because He knows we cannot save ourselves. We are sinful and imperfect. We stumble endlessly. We are cheats, gossips, liars, and thieves. We are idolaters and adulterers. We don’t deserve eternity with a perfect God. But God loves us, so He made a way for us to be with Him forever. He sent His Son into the world to sacrifice Himself for us and pay the price for our sins so we could be washed clean. He stands before God on our behalf, to be our perfect, spotless covering.

Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.

Romans 8:34 NLT

This is why we pray. We pray out of thanksgiving to God. We pray in awe of Him. We pray for His mercy and grace. We pray for His wisdom and guidance. We pray for His healing. We thank Him for His wonderful forgiveness. We praise Him for giving us His Word and His Holy Spirit. Have faith that God hears you! He listens to you, and He so deeply cares about the words you have to say. Pray out of love for Him, and seek His presence. Pray genuinely, for God knows your heart. Pray always, for God is always with you.

Pray then like this:

Our Father in heaven,
may your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done on earth,
as it is in heaven.
Give us today the food we need,
and forgive us our sins,
as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
And don’t let us yield to temptation,
but rescue us from the evil one.

Matthew 6:9-13 NLT