Gleanings

Thoughts and insights from author Jennifer Kennedy Dean

Saturday, February 05, 2005

Top 10 Reasons for Prayer Fatigue

Thinking of prayer as one more thing on your already crowded “to do” list.
Prayer is not an activity, but a relationship. You live continually in that prayer relationship. It is not something you do, but something you live.

The feeling that your job in prayer is to convince God or to move Him to do your will.
Prayer is initiated by God. He moves in your heart, convincing you and moving you to respond to Him and to open your life to His power and provision. Instead of feeling that you have to work on Him, relax and let Him work in you.

The feeling that God is grading you in prayer and you are making a barely passing grade.
God is not criticizing you and scolding you. He is not withholding His blessings from you because you did not say your prayer correctly. The Holy Spirit has perfected your expression of prayer in the spiritual realm and God is responding to the cry of your heart, not the cry of your lips.

Trying to follow someone else’s pattern for prayer and feeling that you fall short.
God has created you with a unique personality type and your own ways of expressing yourself. The forms of prayer or the structures for a devotional time that works for one person may not fit you at all. God delights in you and in your expressions of prayer.

The feeling that in one time-frame—maybe you call it a quiet time—you have to fit in everything included in a pre-determined prayer formula.
Prayer outlines are helpful if you keep them in the right perspective. Let them function to keep your focused when necessary, but not to become a legalistic burden. When you remember that you are living in a prayerful relationship, you will recognize that in the course of your praying life you are incorporating all the aspects of prayer, you will be freed of needing to “cover all the bases” every time you set aside time for focused prayer.

Being stuck in a prayer rut.
Vary your forms of praying. Sing your prayers sometimes. Walk through your house and pray room by room sometimes. Prayer walk your neighborhood. Find ways to liven up your prayer experiences

Struggling not to let your mind wander.
If your mind wanders, my first suggestion is to feel free to follow it and see where it might be going. Maybe God is trying to lure you out of your tightly controlled agenda and take your prayers in a direction you had not considered.


Feeling that prayer is having no effect and is wasted time.
Many times the key to powerful prayer is persevering prayer. Most of what Jesus spoke about prayer was encouragement to keep praying when it seems that nothing is happening. As you develop a deeper understanding of the dynamics of prayer you will come to know what you cannot see (Heb. 11:1). God is at work in response to prayer, whether you can see what He is doing or not.

Feeling that you have to perform some kind of spiritual ritual to get God’s attention before you can pray.
God’s attention never wanders from you. You have His full attention 24 hours of every single day. He keeps you as the apple of His eye (Ps. 17:8). That means that if you could look into His eyes, you would see your face reflected. He keeps you there—He never looks away.

Feeling that you are not good enough to pray and always feeling ashamed in God’s presence.
Your enemy’s favorite lie. He dresses it up in religious-sounding phrases so that it only makes sense that you should feel like a failure in God’s presence. The truth is that God delights in you, sings over you, adores you. He will deal with you in areas of your sins because He loves you and is not willing to see you diminished, but He is not always waiting for your attention so that He can criticize you. Jesus PAID IT ALL. The only offense to the cross is when you will not receive that which He paid so high a price for you to have. (c) Jennifer Kennedy Dean

1 Comments:

Blogger gina said...

Thank you so much for your top 10 reasons for prayer fatigue. I saw myself in several of those circumstances and knowing Satan was enjoying it so. I'm the lady from Midwestern seminary that was in a wheelchair and losing the ability to use my hands. I have so much to learn about prayer but I know the Lord has allowed me to move to Kentucky so that I had the time and support of my husband to spend every evening in prayer. He has taken away my desire to watch TV. Last spring the Lord supplied me with a $3000 Dell Computer. I have used Tom Bishop guides to praying Scripture and that's a real help to keep from wandering quite so much and allow me to pray for more extended periods of time. I was so blessed when you taught the class at Midwestern on the praying life I guess in spring of 2002, I'm not exactly sure of the date. If only you had more available to those of us who can't read a book any longer. Would you consider having someone read your book on tape? I tried to get people from the College my husband teaches at but people are so busy even though they want to help. Thanks again I will enjoy keeping up with your blog. I started my own blog when after six months of keeping my praise journal on my home computer somehow got deleted, one of his students that helps meet some set me up with a blog to write my five things I am thankful for from that particular day. I also have written stories about things that happened with my family of six children through the years. Merrick family haps and mishaps and then I decided I needed another call OUR GOD PROVIDES through the years God has answered so many prayers for our privation. Sometimes even provided before we prayed for them. I can't really wordy since I'm talking into the computer and not typing so please forgive me. I'm so sorry for the loss of your dear husband and I know God has used it to make the Rose you are even more beautiful to Him and more useful for his kingdom. I am blessed by your blog thank you Regina Merrick

August 21, 2008 at 6:12 PM  

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