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Friday, May 8, 2009

Is Prayer supposed to be Hard?

It always amazes me how many times I have heard people say “Praying is hard”, or “I don’t pray very good.” It is quite amusing that we tend to put prayer into a category to be judged like it is a contest or something.

Prayer is NOT something that is done good or bad. It is not something that God is going to grade us on. We can’t fail AT prayer. The only we can do is fail TO pray.

I know that it seems like some people are more ‘gifted’ in the area of prayer. There are some who are very eloquent with their words. Their prayers seem to just flow like a peaceful river. Their prayers are almost poetic in nature. We think that their prayers are more effective because of the beauty of them. When we are truly talking to God, it doesn’t matter if our sentences are grammatically correct. It doesn’t matter if our words are poetic. It doesn’t matter if we don’t even know what to say. What matters is that we are in the process of communing with our heavenly Father. We are pouring out from within our soul to God.

Psalm 120:1 tells us “In my distress I cried to the Lord, And He heard me.”

He hears us precious ones! It doesn’t matter if all we can utter is “Oh, Lord, I need you!”. He listens – He hears – He responds.

Paul tells us in Romans 8:26 that we don’t know how to pray but that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. The Spirit helps us in our weakness.

Last night in worship, my nephew made this statement. ‘We love to come and take part in praise and worship, because that is easy. We don’t commit to pray because it takes effort and we THINK it is hard.’

I have about 30 names on my prayer cards that I keep with me at all times. I also have almost that many on my prayer page. I have committed to the Lord to pray at least once daily for each name individually. It’s not always convenient and it’s not always easy. But that is what the Lord has called me to do and I must be obedient to Him. It is the least I can do for others. I can’t change their situation, but I can intercede on their behalf and lift them up to the Throne of Grace. I don't say this to give myself credit for anything. I do it for accountability. It's being required of me and I want to be obedient.

I want my prayer page to be more effective. I will be making some changes, but PLEASE stop over to it and read the names on the list and agree with me in prayer for those listed there. If you have ANY need – no matter how great or small – or just need to add someone you know, please either leave a comment on the prayer page post or send me an email.

Prayer is simply our way of communicating with our God. It is our way of expressing our gratitude to our Creator. Prayer is our response to God’s grace. When we cry out… when we lift our heads toward heaven… when we focus on Him… God hears. He breathes in our prayers like air and exhales His Spirit to cover us.

Almighty God, thank you for the gift of prayer. Thank you for the ability to lift our every thought up to you. Whether it be praise, adoration, thanksgiving, confession or request. You hear and you care and you respond. Praise you Lord for who you are.


Beth

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I loved it from the beginning...The title really got my attention and you addressed things that I have thought within myself...if only I could pray better...but I know that he hears me no matter what and that sometimes simplicity is what is best...Thank you for your commitments

God Bless you
Tessa

Sherry said...

Good post!

Thanks for stopping by my blog and for your sweet comment.

I saw where you had snakes! Yikes! I'm afraid I would have to move out!

We lived in LA for 20 years; Alexandria & Houma. Where is Oak Grove?

Have a wonderful Mother's Day!

Joanne@ Blessed... said...

Great post Beth. Prayer is something that I am learning to grow into more and more. Definitely one of the atributes of my faith that I can't stress enough to my own children. My 8 year old decided to write a story yesterday. When he got stuck with his idea, he came to me for suggestions. I told him that I would LOVE to help him, as long as he had prayed and asked God for help first.

Someday I won't be around and it is never too early to lead my little ones to the only One who will be by their side for the rest of their life.

***And just wanted to hug you for your sweet words about copying that poem on my blog today. I am hoping to encourage Charlotte. No doubt, your words will!***

Blessings!

Dontmissyoursunsetlady said...

Beth,

Oh how I wish I could sit across the table from you and share my blessing from prayer and share my struggles with prayer. Tears formed in my eyes as I read your post. "WE" are the ones who make prayer hard. Thanks for posting!

Leslie said...

Hi Beth,
Thank you for stopping by my blog today!

This is kind of funny. In the past few weeks, I've made a lot of new bloggy friends. From reading their blogs, I can see that many of them need prayer. So just today I decided to get out a journal and begin a list of all these people because there are so many that I'm starting to have trouble keeping them all in my head. Then I came over to your blog and found that today's post is on prayer! Very ironic! Wonderful post!

Happy Mother's Day! By the way, you look too young to be a grandma! (You're only 2 years older than me!)

Jenny @ flutterbyechronicles said...

Wonderful post, I really don't understand these two statements either, “Praying is hard”, “I don’t pray very good.” I have always prayed since I was little as if Jesus were sitting right next to me as my friend. I am not good at doing a public prayer or public speaking for that matter, but I just say what is on my heart and if it sounds funny I am sure God is having a laugh, but still listening to every word;)

Sue said...

Amen.

My prayers are just my normal speech. The way I talk normally. I don't use eloquent words or the like, I just chat to God. And I know He's happy with that!

My four year old says the funniest things when praying, but I think He loves that too.

If we lessen the pressure the prayers will increase!

Beth E. said...

I agree that there are some people who pray so eloquently...I am not one of those people! I stammer and search for words so many times! It can be a little uncomfortable in group settings...BUT I continue on!

Thank you for a great post. :o)

A Stone Gatherer said...

Confession - I often feel overwhelmed by prayer! The amount of people and things I should be praying for is like a wall that I hit and can't get over! Frustrating, because I so want to be an effective fervent pray'er. I do feel like I fail at prayer. That's not anything God puts on me I know, it's all me! Thanks for this post Beth.

Yolanda said...

Why do "we" always have to be comparing? And when we don't then we feel as of pride has stepped in and ah, look at me. Balance, and in our prayers lives, with corporate prayer, I for one need balance. Thank you for reminding us that it is about communication, not matter how eloquent, it's simply communing.

Love to you!