 Some days, there are some people I don't want to see or speak to. In the same way, if I am avoiding prayer...
2. Am I avoiding God? At times, we all have reasons to avoid God. Anger at what God has done or hasn't done. Depression that God has not relieved. Disappointment in what God has allowed and failed to provide. Disobedience to what God has clearly commanded. Stubbornness in the face of the Spirit's promptings. Return to God. Speak to Him. Tell Him. He already knows. Instead of asking God to change your circumstances. Ask Him to change your feelings, your heart, your desires.  The time to pray is here and, honestly, I want to clean the bathroom or rearrange the furniture or do anything -- except pray. Why?
1. Am I out of practice? Good habits are easy to erode and bad ones easy to pick up. Apathy is a comfortable enemy that masquerades as a friend. Even good habits and tradition often slide into apathy, just going through the motions. To break its hold, a heartfelt pattern must be reestablished. Options: If it is a lack of habit, pray before your devotions or set a five-minute timer for the same time every day and pray uninterrupted. If it is a lack of heart, sing during prayer, write your prayers as letters to God, or kneel during prayer. Sometimes my prayers seem...repetitive. I use the same words. The same patterns. The same requests. My prayers seem...boring. But this doesn't have to be the case: 1. Pray through a passage of Scripture. Use the words, stories, and imagery to worship and request. 2. Sing as part of prayer or sing your prayer. 3. Go somewhere special to pray or take a pray walk. 4. Write your prayers down -- as letters to God. 5. Pray over a specific topic or request from a ministry or situation. 6. Draw while you pray. 7. Change your position, kneel, get on your face, raise your hands. 8. Pray with a friend. Or text prayers to friends to let you know you are praying for them. 9. Fast from technology, a meal, or something else in order to pray. 10. Set a one-minute timer and pray for something specific one minute at a time.   1. Worship God in place of petitioning God.
2. Pray through a Psalm that reflects the situation or your emotions. 3. Ask for God to glorify Himself. 4. Pray that others will come to know Christ and walk more closely with Him. 5. Request God to soften your heart (or the hearts of others). 6. Ask God to help you (and others) to obey. 7. Pray for Godly character and wisdom in the lives of all involved. 8. Find a prayer in Scripture and pray it -- like Philippians 1:9-11 or Colossians 1:9-11. 9. Rehearse reasons to trust God -- both in the Bible and that you have personally experienced. 10. Thank God for every good thing. I was looking at a wart...a stubborn wart. I had tried multiple times to get rid of it and failed. Warts are caused by a virus. But instead of destroying the virus and the infected cells, the immune system tolerates it. The virus is merely walled off. So it continues to make its home in the skin...unless something happens to awaken the immune system. How spiritually applicable. Often we are blind to our pet sins. They are walled off and safe from our defenses until something happens that causes us to see our pride or our selfishness or our idolatry. And just like my immune system, we can acknowledge the presence of an invader and kill it – even though it means losing some cells in the process. Or we can choose to ignore the sin, wall it off again and have a wart. That can grow and spread. Our choice.  |
The AuthorCome with me as we grow in fellowship with each other and our Savior to whom belongs the Amazing Escape from sin and death and the Amazing Journey into glorious life. Archives
January 2026
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