I have three main areas where I struggle with my prayer life. Only three, you ask? Three main areas, with multiple subcategories, if I’m completely honest. In different ways, I’d have to classify all of these as faithless prayers. Sigh …
I’ve written about a couple of the areas where I struggled around the time that my dog, Winnie, was suffering through some major kidney failure, eventually leading to the decision to end her life.
Specifically, there are times that I just don’t feel like praying. I’m not sure I believe that God will answer my particular prayer and so I pretty much put my prayer life on the shelf. See the link below for that refresher course.
Do We Ever Get a “Prayer Pass?” (lynnehoeksema.com)
Then there are those times where I really have no idea how or what to pray. Despite the “aha” moment God gave me at that time, I haven’t conquered this completely. Again, see the link below for more info on that particular challenge.
A “Prayer Pass” Addendum (lynnehoeksema.com)
That brings me to a third area where I’ve struggled somewhat subconsciously, if that’s even a thing. I’m talking about the times when we have long-term situations we are praying over. The examples are endless and can be very specific to each person.
Here’s a list of the types of situations that come to mind; some of these I claim as my own.
- Healing from a long-term, possibly terminal disease
- Mental illness
- Healing from abuse
- Marital issues
- Wayward children
- Salvation for friends and family
- Infertility
- Career/job challenges
- Finances
- Broken relationships
In most of the above examples, I’m not necessarily referring to prayers for ourselves. Personally, I don’t find it hard to remember to pray for the challenges that are front and center in my own life. Where I do struggle, is remembering those prayer requests that have been on my heart for a long time.
Let’s use the example of infertility. If you or someone close to you struggles in this area, I bet you don’t have trouble remembering to pray about it on a regular basis. But what if the request was from someone you worked with, perhaps not even on a daily basis. How “front and center” would that request be? Especially if it didn’t seem very probable that God was going to answer it.
Or perhaps you’ve been praying that someone would come to know the Lord in a personal, life-saving way. Maybe it’s a decades-old prayer and you’ve seen no signs of progress (at least in limited, human vision).
When I’m hit with the reality of how inconsistent, or even non-existent, some of my long-term prayers are, my first reaction is one of guilt. How could I have forgotten to pray for this vitally important circumstance? What kind of Christian friend am I? How could I let the passage of time cause me to lose faith in the power of prayer?
Certainly the effective use of a prayer journal, or other means of reminding us can go a long ways toward avoiding these kinds of “shut-outs,” but I believe most of us still have the ones that slip through the cracks.
As I was recently berating myself for a situation I hadn’t prayed over lately, God reminded me that my feeble, sporadic, often faithless prayers are not the primary factor in how, when or if he answers them. None of us has that kind of power that can keep God from working, despite our “contribution” to the situation, or lack thereof.
Of course, we want God to develop in us a more consistent, more faith-filled prayer life – long term. But praise God that his faithfulness is what ultimately matters, and where we can confidently rest.
If we are faithless, he remains faithful—
for he cannot deny himself.
2 Timothy 2:13
Leave a Reply