12 THINGS TO DO WHEN YOU DO NOT FEEL LIKE PRAYING

Written By: Lizzy Oyebola Yakubu (De-Raconteur)

 

The truth of the matter is that as children of God, we cannot not pray!

 

We are either praying or fainting! No, we just cannot stay in the middle!

 

We are either praying or fainting! No, we just cannot stay in the middle!

 

We know this fact. We know how important this key of prayer is but some days, we feel so lazy and tired. We do not know what to say in prayers. Not because we lack issues in our lives, no.

 

We have our desires and dreams spiritually, we have bills to pay, we have battles we are fighting, we have needs, desires and aspirations yet, when we come to the place of prayer, our lips are shut, our hearts are closed, our eyes are dry!

 

We have no burden at all in our souls. We have no pain, no sorrow to push us down on our knees! In actual fact, our personal devotional lives have become a thing of the past! And you know how important the hours spent alone will affect your life forever. You know, but…Click here to know more about quiet time and how to rekindle the fire of your personal devotions. 

 

I must say at this juncture that not feeling like praying is not something unusual. It is not uncommon. It is not strange.

 

When you dig into the Word of God, you will realize that the flesh and the spirit are at war against each other every single moment! Galatians 5:17 The flesh hates the spirit and the spirit hates the flesh- with passion!

 

In a war or battle, there must be a winner, however! One party must surrender to the other party! So, at times, the flesh wins and our spirit loses. And some other time, the spirit wins and the flesh loses.

 

It actually depends on us! It depends on us to allow the flesh win and let the spirit lose and vice versa.

 

We wonder how our prayer lives go down at some point and we try to blame Satan, the devil, Lucifer etc. We just give the devil so many names when our fall is actually our own doing! We care so much for the flesh and leave the spirit starved! That shouldn’t be!

 

Just as we will go all length to get our flesh satisfied so it doesn’t die, we should learn to go even farther lengths to keep our spirits alive! When you have not eaten for ten days, you look so pitiable but your spirit man can go five weeks without you feeling it? Or, maybe you would feel it but you would just simply try ‘your best’ and leave the rest to the Lord? No way! Not anymore!

 

Just as we will go all length to get our flesh satisfied so it doesn’t die, we should learn to go even farther lengths to keep our spirits alive!

 

Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ looked through His herd of disciples while on earth and He chose three to go with Him to Gethsemane! Matthew 26: 36-46  

 

His heart was full of sorrow- that burden that pushes one to pray! But Peter, James and John who were the friends the Lord chose to go with Him to Gethsemane to pray, I must tell you couldn’t feel what Jesus felt!

 

They couldn’t see what Jesus saw!

 

They couldn’t touch Heaven in prayers with the One who loved them so!

 

Instead of praying with and for the Lord, they were sleeping! Over and over again the Lord woke them up from sleep but they couldn’t stay awake because one actually needs a burden to stay awake and pray!

 

Instead of praying with and for the Lord, they were sleeping!

 

Like the disciples, if we cannot feel what the Lord feels, we can’t pray! If we cannot see what the Lord sees, we can’t pray!

 

Like the disciples, if we cannot feel what the Lord feels, we can’t pray! If we cannot see what the Lord sees, we can’t pray!

 

Can we say a prayer together quickly?

 

Oh Lord, my Help in ages past and my Hope for years to come, I have come to a realization that I need adequate burden to pray! I need the burden from your heart, a glimpse of your thoughts and a tittle of your sight to go down on my knees and cry to You. Father, breathe on me! Breathe Your Nature on me! Impute Your desires in me! Let me be aligned with You so that I can pray according to Your Will at all time! Thank You Father for hearing me. As I go through the remaining lines of this blogpost, speak expressly to me Lord. For I have asked this in the Name that is above all names, Jesus! Amen.

 

I said earlier that the feeling is not uncommon. It is not something new to Christians, old and young. Even in the Bible, some of our patriarchs also had the same feeling of not wanting to pray. It is however, as I have said earlier, a battle that you must win!

 

The time when you are not moved to pray is not the time to indulge in sin. That is not the time to be careless. That is not a time to waste around. That is not the time to be mad at God or yourself. That is not the time to indulge in time-wasting activities. No!

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Lie before the Presence of God and STAY THERE! Don’t go anywhere! Stay there and make sure you are able to speak to Him again before you stand up! Make sure you are able to reconnect and quiet the flesh!

 

You can check this story too. It will leave your personal devotion altar burning with fresh fire! 

 

I HAVE LISTED BELOW THIRTEEN (13) THINGS TO DO WHEN YOU DO NOT FEEL LIKE PRAYING:

 

1. SEARCH YOURSELF

‘Search me oh Lord and know my heart. Try me oh God and know my thought’ in Psalm 139:23-24 is an example of a prayer from a man who was after God’s own heart!

 

‘There could be some faults in me, Lord, fetch them out! There could be some evil thoughts I do not even know are in me, Spirit of God, reveal them. Do not let me relate with the Holy God with some unholy properties in me. God, search me.‘ Something like this might have been His cries.

 

The Bible says in Isaiah 59 verses 1-2 that ‘Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: 2. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear

 

If you are really worried about the lack of communication between you and God, search yourself first. Sin could be the one stopping you. Fish it out.

 

2. CONFESS ALL SINS TO GOD

Then, Proverbs 28:13 says ‘He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.’

 

Confession and repentance are not old-school. They are not what should be pushed aside because we have the grace of God. Oh the matchless Grace of God! Glory be to the Almighty God! The importance of confessing, repenting and forsaking of your sins cannot be overemphasized however. It can never be ruled out!

 

After searching as in 1 above, confess those things you have realized to God as sin. Be sincerely sorry for them all. Some of the sins could be: Lies of different colors, masturbation, fornication, adultery, addiction to pornography and other sexual sins, stealing, murder and abortion etc.

 

The Bible says in Isaiah 1:18  that ‘Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool‘

 

The Lord is willing to hear you when you call on Him. He is ready to forgive every sincere heart! In Psalm 18:25-26, the Bible says ‘With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright. 26. With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward.’

 

That is the Word of the Lord. The attitude you wear in relating with God is the same attitude you receive back from Him. If you are sincere with God, He would be very plain with you too.

 

 

3. TELL GOD OF YOUR CONDITION

When you discover that you have missed you period as a new wife and you are feeling all kind of funny, the first thing to do is check your calendar and run a simple home-made test to confirm if it is pregnancy (That is what step 1 and 2 above entail) Afterwards, when your symptoms persist, you may need to go to the hospital to tell the doctor your problem. That is what this point 3 is about.

 

That is it! Being as vulnerable with God as you would be with that earthly medical doctor! Tell Him everything!

 

Lord, I miss You! The past few days/weeks/months have been hell without You. At some point, I didn’t even know that I had left You behind and was behind the wheel by myself. No wonder it’s been frustrating! God, it’s been scary and much scary is the fact that I find it difficult to pray. My heart isn’t ready. My body is slow and I know I am treading a dangerous path. Father, look at how pitiable I have become. A whole me! A whole daughter/son of the King of kings. I am now tired of my state Lord. And I want You to look down at me and have mercy! That is all I ask, mercy, Lord!

 

1Peter 5:7  says ‘Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you’

 

He wants to hear from you. Speak and pour it all out!

 

4. SING ALOUD!

Sometimes, it might not be sin stopping you from having a smooth communication with God. It might actually be that you need to insert a break of songs and singing in between your vigorous prayers.

 

There is a saying that when prayer fails, try praises. And that is it! Sometimes, we only focus on supplications and intercession, forgetting the fact that singing itself is praying! Singing the right songs, by the way.

 

When prayer fails, try praises!

 

Don’t just hum that fine, solemn gospel music- sing it aloud! Sing it aloud! Sing it till it reaches your spirit! Sing it till Heaven smiles! Sing it till your spirit wins!

 

5. GO ON A WORSHIP WALK

,You must have heard about prayer walks before. Oh, great! You might have even gone on one or two before, sweet! But in this case, maybe that itself won’t work since your spirit wouldn’t just cooperate. Then, my brother, my sister, try the worship walk!

 

Worship is actually about God, not about you. You shift the focus from You and look Heavenwards. Personally, I love to look into the sky and see the clouds, the sun, the moon, the flying birds, the trees, the plane flying across the sky and so on. I would be so lost in my admiration till my spirit expands and bursts out into some great worship.

 

Worship is actually about God, not about you.

 

‘Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder…’ is a good worship hymn. You can watch the video of the hymn by Citrail here 

 

6. LISTEN TO A MESSAGE ON PRAYER

There are some pastors that when you listen to them dissect the Word, you shudder, right? Good! You will need them at this critical point too. You have to look for some of their messages on prayer or prayerlessness and listen to them. For example, here is a message on prayer by one of my Fathers in the Lord, Zac Poonen. You can follow this link to watch ‘Having the burden for prayer’.

 

You should be praying at the end of the message! You should!

 

7. START A PRAYER JOURNAL

Oh yes! This is something I do a whole lot. When my mouth is too heavy, my hand cannot be too heavy! I would write the prayers down! I would write every single word down!

 

These are some prices to pay, just to ensure you are in a healthy relationship with the One who loves you so! Nothing is too much! Nothing is too stressful!

 

‘Father, I thank You for waking up this morning. I had a dream today where I saw a man that was… Father, I only have one more cup of rice in my cupboard and I am not happy about it. Provide for my parents so that they can…I want to love you more oh Lord! Enough is enough of spiritual stagnancy!…God, I heard from Tosin that there has been a rumour going on about me that I am stingy. Oh Lord, it hurts. To think that the person who started the rumour is Abigail who I have shared all I have with. Ah, Lord, o dun mi, sir….’ on and on, tell the Father all of it! Pour it out, c’mon!

 

Before you are done writing a few more pages, your heart should warm up and open the gate of your mouth! Words would start flowing to your Father’s ears!

 

 

8. READ THROUGH PAST DEVOTION JOURNALS AGAIN

At some points in my life, when I feel down and hopeless and the devil paints it as if the Lord isn’t faithful and that the Lord hasn’t done anything spectacular in my life, I would quickly go back to my journal (As in 7 above) where my pains, joy, request, testimonies etc. are written.

 

Line by line, page by page, I would start to read, chew and digest! My emotions would quake at the mercies of the Lord till a song or a prayer breaks out from my mouth. We are humans and humans forget. It is good we remind ourselves because testimonies renew our strengths, whether we like it or not.

 

9. LISTEN TO OR READ ABOUT PEOPLE WHO HAVE EXPERIENCED WHAT YOU ARE EXPERIENCING (It’s actually not uncommon)

Oh yes! Read about people who have felt that way in the Bible and around you. People like Elijah, the prophet of fire who had just by the power of God called down fire, glorifying the Name of the Lord in an idolatry-stricken land and almost immediately became a chicken who ran away from the threats of human, Jezebel! You can read the story in 1Kings 19 here You will see from there how the Lord dealt with his fear and prayerlessness.

 

You can visit Google https://www.google.com/ also and search for ‘When I do not feel like praying’ etc. and you will find many people writing about the subject. Open your heart as you read from the sources that are godly and you will learn a lot. You should be ignited or almost ignited by the time you are done reading.

 

You should have some godly mentors too, right? Call them and be straightforward. ‘I want you to share your experience of ‘when you did not feel like praying with me’, please’

 

It will help you to know that someone who you respect so much has had the same experience as you are having. It helps.

 

 

 

10. START A NOTE OF ‘BLESSINGS-COUNTING’

At that time when you are at your lowest ebb. When you feel so down and unable to pray, pick up your pen and paper and start writing the good things that the Lord has done for you. The air you breathe in, the cloth you wear, the health you enjoy, the healing, the job, the friends….just name them all!

 

You can be playing the hymn ‘Count your blessings name them one by one’ at the background as you write. It will help you a great deal. You can listen to Count Your Blessings by Nikikatful here 

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11. GO THROUGH YOUR HYMNAL AND SING (If you cry, cry!)

Oh yes! This helps a whole lot! The writers of most of these hymns are long dead but these hymns, they wrote out of their many lives challenges. Sing from Hymn 1 and keep progressing till your spirit breaks free. Oh glory! It works! It does work!

 

Here is a hymn app you can download from Playstore 

 

Or this 

 

or even this 

 

There are a lot of them on Google Play Store. Download them and sing without any distractions. With your gaze focusing on the Cross of Calvary, His Blood will avail for you!

 

12. DEAL WITH THE FLESH. DON’T GIVE IT WHAT IT WANTS!

The last point I have here is very important! The time you feel the most prayerless is not the time to indulge the flesh. Intentionally tell your flesh that you are not interested in obeying it! When you deny the flesh, you are teaching yourself discipline. And when your spirit sees discipline, it soars!

 

When your flesh is demanding for too much food, don’t eat! Go on a fast- short or long (your choice) and consecrate that time to the Lord doing the above 11 points.

 

When your flesh is demanding for a secular movie, go grab a Christian movie or better still, pick up that Christian book and study!

 

When your flesh is demanding sleep, as if the eight hours you have slept for isn’t long enough, go on a walk! Worship walk, praises walk, listening to a prayer message, whatever, just don’t obey that flesh! It is looking for a way to win your spirit and take away your sword, your arrow, don’t allow it!

 

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Prayer is not for a lazy person! If you must pray, you must be ready to give it all it takes! May the Lord help us. Amen.

 

I would sincerely love to hear from you in the comment box below. Thank you dearly for stopping by.