Is prayer hard to do?

I long to minister in God’s Church many years ago and asked that very question. Is prayer a hard thing to do?

The answers from people tend to be very broad. Some will say “no it’s easy, just pray” while others say it is hard to the point where they just do not do it or give it little attention in their lives.

Others who pray say in order to do it you must follow the guide of the model prayer in Matthew 6:5. Others say you must be sinless to pray but nobody really is truly sinless. So what is the answer and why?

The minister pointed out that to truly pray is one of the hardest things to do as a Christian.

How so?

There is a protocol, a system of conduct that to pray to God we have to follow and remember. It’s not what it sounds like but it is what helps make your prayer life more meaningful and helps reach the desired results.

One aspect we will look at is that we enter into God’s presence and seek his will. This makes it hard because the large majority of people do not realize this.

Oftentimes we go to God with our requests in which he instructs us to do. These requests still are subject to His will. You coming into his presence with these requests should have the reverence of coming before God and submitting to His will.

James tells us that God will not answer us if we ask according to our lusts: James 4:3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

Prayer is always submitting to God in his presence. You must remember it always when you do. It is the Holiest place you will be in this present age. In the past this was done so in the Temple of God. But when Christ sacrificed himself and was resurrected. He paved the way for us to enter into the presence without the need for an intermediary.

God is the most righteous therefore the most qualified to punish and forgive sin. To give from his riches, to shape the world conditions to our needs. Even when it means correcting us.

Another is how do we approach God being sinful? If we come before God we should know that we are in the form of sinful man. Adam and Eve tried to hide from God when they sinned; we are not to do so in prayer as sinners.

Prayer is the confession of sin when it presents itself in your consciousness. God expects us to come to Him to hear us and to wash it from us in Christ’s blood. God wants that for us as being believers in him. Remember our sins were punished in Christ’s sacrifice.

As scripture says, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. He wants us to be clean by his forgiveness, that’s why we must confess our sins.

1 John 1:8-10 ESV If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

We also have to resist the need to hide from God with our sins because it is his mercy and love to want to clean us from them. To look at them beforehand and bring them out allows God to forgive them and get to the relationship we need with him. He wants to see the real person we are. Not the fake one we put out for others from time to time. That is the biggest thing that makes prayer hard.

Finally we are instructed to come boldly. This also means to come with honesty, sincerity and truthfulness.

God knows everything as we see in Hebrews 4:12

For the Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

God sees all in us so if our prayer aligns with the honesty of how we feel he will hear us.

This also includes times when we feel we should pray but we struggle with the subject we want to pray about. Honesty helps us to lay it out and see it plainly with God. That’s why he wants to hear it. The Holy Spirit intercedes in that by working for us.

Romans 8:26-27 New International Version (NIV) We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

A question asked repeatedly over the past year was: should I pray for a particular presidential candidate to be president. Again it is your honesty in the issue He looks at. His will still is done regardless. Aligning ourselves in an election does however show him where we are as a person and areas we may need to work on to align ourselves with him.

We also are to enter boldly because of what Jesus did for us.

Hebrews 4:16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Like the highway bypassing the congestion of a city, so is what Jesus Christ did for us. His blood became that highway, a tremendous gift for us who believe to pray without a priest or other intermediary. To allow direct presence to the Father.

The world is getting worse as we come closer to Christ’s return. We will have many reasons to pray especially in the weeks and months ahead.

While they may not seem related to the present troubles they do have a bearing on how we should conduct our prayers to get the most out of them. To see ourselves and in his eyes and to see his will in all things.

Prayer is hard when we want to use it the way it was not designed and intended to be used. In that way it is always more effective.

Remember:

Proverbs 15:29 New International Version (NIV) The LORD is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.

Happy Sabbath!

Your brother in Christ,

Steve Koenig