I hear, on good authority, that I am to pray without ceasing. Jesus himself reminds me, “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do… If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” (John 13). James, the brother of Jesus, wrote, “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” The Apostle John backs them up, writing, “And whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him” (1 John 3:22). He continues, “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us” (1 John 5:14).
But I do not have to stick with Bible verses for encouragement to pray. I know the stories not only of great prayers, but great people of prayer. Martin Luther is often quoted as saying, “I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” John Wesley would say he thought very little of a man who did not pray four hours every day. And do not even get me started on George Müller. If you’ve ever wondered if prayer works, look up this 19th century Brit and get back to me. Finally, there is the not-famous-at-all young woman I met in college, about whom it was said, “If you ever need something prayed for, ask her. God answers all her prayers.”
So, I have all the encouragement I need, of both the inspired and inspiring type, to spur some serious praying. By that, I mean the kind of praying that starts every morning while it is still dark outside. The kind that happens before I ever check my phone. The kind that makes me feel like God is standing over my shoulder, smiling kindly and nodding his head in approval at my every word.
There’s just one problem: I’m no good at this.
Not only does this kind of prayer routine elude me, but the very encouragements and promises noted above often fail to encourage me. Prayers that seem to be unanswered outnumber the ones that are. Motivation is nowhere to be found. My prayers seem to lack power, often not working at all.
I begin to wonder: Am I not understanding what asking “in his name” really means? Does it say something about my status as a “righteous person?” Might I be displeasing him by not asking the right way?
You get the idea, and maybe you can relate. The very words that should encourage us to pray can do exactly the opposite when our prayers and the accompanying results (or lack of them) don’t seem to match. We begin to feel like we cannot measure up to the godly examples set before us. Instead of feeling like Luther, Wesley, Müller, or others who seem to have found the secret to prayer, we feel more like Peter, James, and John in the garden of Gethsemane, where they could not watch with Jesus for one hour. Like the disciples, we find that the spirit is willing, but the flesh weak. Other times, even the spirit is not so willing.
What, then, should we do? Read a book on prayer? Perhaps, but since this is no book, we will simply consider the motivation and practice of prayer.
Motivation
What motivates you to pray? Is it out of a sense of duty? After all, you have heard countless times that Christians ought to pray. Or do you feel motivated only when you need something? When your back is against the wall, it is easy to see the value in praying with sincerity. While duty and need may keep you praying for a little while, at some point you will be lax in your duties, or life will go smoothly for a while.
As you seek to develop a proper motivation to prayer, consider this: God wants to spend time with you in prayer. Don’t rush ahead. Read that sentence again. God wants to spend time with you in prayer.
He does not call us to pray out of sheer duty. He desires more than our prayers when we are in need. He loves and cares for us. He is interested in our lives, and longs to hear from us.
Practice
How, then, do we move toward lives increasingly filled with prayer? You will not need a pen and paper for this, for the method is simple. The secret is… pray.
You may not feel like praying. Pray anyway. You may feel like he is not listening. Pray anyway. You may even feel like your efforts are not even prayers at all. Pray anyway.
Let me share with you how this works for me. When I have nothing in the tank, I grab a prayer book and start reading. That’s right: I just read prayers. Eventually, something sticks out. As I re-read a line. I find myself slowing down. At this point, I have moved from simply reading to thinking about the words I have read. It then occurs to me that I am praying. When this happens, I am no longer rushing to be done, and things progress from there.
You are not alone in finding prayer difficult. Every one of us has struggled with prayer. However, be encouraged by this: The only way to fail at prayer is by failing to pray.
Pray. It just might change everything.
Jody Thomas (MA, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) serves as a discipleship class teacher at Oak Park Baptist Church. He lives in Floyd’s Knobs with his wife, Missy.