O Lord, they sought Thee in distress, They could only whisper a prayer. Your chastening was upon them.
Isaiah 26: 16 (NASB)
Scripture: Matthew 6: 5-14
We all have times where it seems like we just can’t pray. Sometimes, it is because of sin and the consequences that we face because of it. This devotion looks at what we can do when we can’t seem to pray.
Cliff Notes
- While the Holy Spirit will pray for us when we feel we can’t, we need to remain in an attitude of prayer.
- Our prayers do not have to be eloquent prayer, stating everything in specific terms.
- God will gladly take a one-line prayer — anything that shows Him we are looking to Him.
- We can use these times when prayers don’t come to get really real with God.
There are times when we feel so out of touch with God. It may be because we have willfully sinned and have become so mired in it, we can’t see His face anymore. Or we may be so feeling His punishment for these sins that we feel He has rejected us.
Then again, we may not know why the troubles have piled up. We just feel so overwhelmed. It is as if God is blocked out.
How many times have we heard someone say, “Just pray”? The problem is we feel this has to be an eloquent prayer, stating everything in specific terms. We feel we have to confess everything, specifically, ask for everything, tell God exactly what we are feeling.
Too bad life isn’t always that concrete. Those are the times we have to just allow the Holy Spirit to pray for us.
No, that doesn’t mean we can just say, “Okay, H.S. Do your thing for me” – and not doing anything ourselves. We have to remain in the attitude of prayer.
What Does This Mean?
There are many times that we feel we “… are too distressed even to pray” (Ps 77: 44 LB). When my parents died six weeks apart, I got really confused. It was hard for me to articulate my feelings because I was so numb. I didn’t know what I was feeling.
If things got really bad, I would go to my church, sit on the floor (my version of laying prostrate at His feet) and usually just sit there. I’d try to pray, and the sentences wouldn’t form. Or I’d be going along well and hit a wall because I blanked on the words (usually the two- or three-letter variety).
When Mom was sick, someone sent me a card saying, “Prayer is the burden of a sigh, the falling of a tear, the upward glancing of the eye, when none, but God is near.” Do you really think God wants an award-winning prayer at times like these? I don’t think so.
God will gladly take a one-line prayer — anything that shows Him we are looking to Him. He wants us to be in the attitude of prayer.
So many times we just say the words. Sometimes, the words get in the way. Don’t you think, especially in these times, He would want us to listen instead of talk?
That’s a whole other devotion. How many times do we listen? Especially when we are hurting so much. We don’t. We just barrel our way on through our pain. He’s not interested as much in our words as He is in our attitude and reliance on Him.
To read Do We Always Hear and Listen to God?, click the button below.
How Do We Apply This?
We can use these times when prayers don’t come to get really real with God. We can come as we are — all the pain and suffering. He even wants to see our tears.
Go to His house if at all possible. Even though He is with us all the times, sometimes we feel closer to Him “where He lives.” It is a form of reverence, our approaching His throne in His house. It is a physical action showing we are actively seeking God.
But we can and should pray where we are. God wants us to be continually in an attitude of prayer (I Thess. 5: 17). We need to especially continue to pray when we think God isn’t answering our prayers.
To read When God Doesn’t Answer on Our Timetables, click the button below.
We really need to be “prayed up” for when the prayers won’t come. That doesn’t mean we should check off on daily to-do list that we have prayed those long, eloquent prayers however many times per day.
What it does mean is our relationship with God is where it needs to be. We are grounded so that, when the prayers don’t come, our foundation is firm.
When the relationship is right, we’ve shown that our trust and faith is in God. He knows what we need when we have the one-word prayer or tear prayer.
Look at the verse again. “O Lord, they sought Thee in distress, They could only whisper a prayer. Your chastening was upon them” (Isa. 26: 16 NASB). It talks about punishment.
This needs to be a two-word prayer. “I’m sorry” works. “Forgive me” does, too. Hook them together, and we have good start on a prayer.
We can be right with God and still mess up. I think that is when Satan tempts us the most. That is because, when we are right with God, we are more useful to Him. Satan doesn’t want that.
Even if God is chastising us, He wants us to call to Him. He wants us to seek to improve our relationship with Him. That is how much He loves us.
God. “See my sorrows; feel my pain; forgive my sins” (Ps. 25: 18 LB). Amen.
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