Prayer and the Difficulties Therein

In my last post (although it's right above), I spoke about every follower of Christ's calling to live a life of prayer. It's an easy enough thing to accept, but the practice of such a life can cause major shifts in priorities and can at times be far more difficult than it at first appeared to be.

For example, last night when my wife and I were praying, I felt somewhat distant. It wasn't as though I was completely disconnected from the leading of the Holy Spirit, but I was having a much harder time than usual tuning in and praying God's heart. I still pressed in and prayed anyway, but it felt different, almost fabricated. The upside to this is that God knows our shortcomings and He knows that we don't always feel like praying and that we may, at times feel distracted during prayer. What's even better is that when we do feel distracted or even disinterested but continue to pray despite those feelings, God is still glorified and honours our efforts to draw nearer to Him. Luckily for me, tonight was far different. I was feeling much more connected to the Holy Spirit and could readily hear what was being laid on my heart and thusly lift those things up to God, things that I surely wouldn't have thought to bring up if left to my own devices.

As for the shifts in priorities, those have come along as well. Very recently, my wife and I decided that it was necessary for us to institute a curfew of sorts, so that if we hadn't done so already, we were now taking time out to study scripture and pray. This is the time when our 'scheduled apaty' brought on by entertainment is set aside and we spend time together before the Lord. When we are faithful in this, I feel that our time spent in scripture and prayer is far more enriched that usual.