Keep Praying

 

Yesterday morning God challenged me to pray for revival. I did. The devil didn’t like it. He spent the afternoon assaulting my thoughts to the point that I forgot what I’d been praying for. By the time I recognized this was a spiritual attack and connected to Satan attempting to thwart those prayers, I wondered how God could even listen to me over that barrage of unholy thinking. 

Today the Spirit took me to my books on prayer and I did a search on hindrances. The first discovered comment said, “The difficulties most often complained of as hindrances to prayer may be traced back to want of love.” I could see the connection to my battle, but also the answer. Remembering God loves me totally, relentlessly, without stopping or needing me to be lovable. Knowing this removes that hindrance and draws me into a deeper desire to pray, to talk with Him. Want of love can stop prayer, but knowing His love motivates it.

Other clues about hindrances to prayer also describe problems I’ve had that keep me from praying. One is this: “He who is too busy to pray will be too busy to live a holy life.” Being busy is almost a disease in the lives of many Christians. We joke about it, complain about it, yet as my hubby often points out, most of our busyness is by choice.

Even so, life’s duties can become pressing and crowd out prayer. One author says: “This way of hindering prayer becomes so natural, so easy, so innocent that it comes on us all unawares.” If we will allow our praying to be crowded out, it will always stop us from prayer. Satan rathers ‘we let the grass grow on the path to our prayer-chamber than anything else.’ 

Lack of prayer indicates a “Gone out of business” sign on my life. It can also mean I’m living for some other name than God’s and to somebody else’s glory, likely my own. In the early church, the apostles understood prayer as their most important business: 

And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:2–4)

 For them, prayer was the priority, not an opening and closing remark whenever they met together. I’ve also realized how putting prayer first changes the day, yet doing it remains a challenge. Besides my own lax, that devious enemy works to stop me.

He didn’t stop Daniel. His enemies had a petition that meant death for praying, but “When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.” (Daniel 6:10) This got him tossed into the lion’s den, yet God delivered him. Little wonder the NT says this: 

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8) 

I need to be alert, but also persistent and obedient because many hindrances to prayer are related to disobedience. For instance:

Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered. (Proverbs 21:13)
If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination. (Proverbs 28:9)

The Bible also points to pious activity for personal gain (Isaiah 58:1-14, Matthew 5) and most of all, unconfessed sin (Isaiah 59:1-3, Zechariah 7:12-13, Psalm 66:18, many more)

For me, busyness, selfish desires, or feeling as if my prayers bounce off the ceiling because God doesn’t care about what I care about (lack of His love) are hindrances. I have dozens of books on prayer but reading them does not remove any obstruction. The only way to do it is by praying.

PRAY: Jesus, You are loud and clear. Protect me from the enemy’s lies and other obstacles as I go to prayer. . . .