Why Aren’t You Praying?

If you’ve been a Christian for any amount of time you will understand how important fellowship is with other believers. So then how much more important is it for us to have fellowship with God? Never ceasing to pray or praying without end should be a standard for every believer. Conversing with God through prayer humbles ourselves and puts God in his proper place above all things. He is above all the problems we have. He is above all of the things that we lack. He knows where we are going and he has had a path laid out for us since the beginning of time. Through prayer we take comfort in all those things and the fact that he hears our prayers. Our prayers are an incense to him. It’s a sweet smell to the lord. He delights when we pray.

Psalm 141:2 Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

So why do we neglect prayer? At the first sign of troubles we should be on our knees in prayer before the Lord. But is that what we do? For me it has taken a while to cultivate this type of response. Or rather the Lord was/is cultivating this type of response in me. Regardless, prayer should be our first response.

Revelation 8:4 And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.

The Holy Spirit intercedes for us when we can’t find the words. In our times of great struggle when we can’t find a way out or the words to explain, the Spirit lifts our prayers to God the Father. This is a comforting thought when we don’t have the words to pray.

Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

I think the main reason we don’t pray often enough is because of our pride. Man has an inclination towards sin and pride is the root of quite a few of them. We think God doesn’t hear us. Or we think we don’t need to pray to God for little things. Dear friends, God wants to hear every prayer we have. He delights in them and never grows tired of them.

Praying big prayers is another way we don’t fully trust in God. He can do all things. So why wouldn’t we pray for the big things? Earlier in my walk I often thought God didn’t hear me because I wasn’t getting what I wanted. The problem was I wasn’t asking for the right things or any of the big things. Our prayers need to line up with God’s will. Reading and meditating on His word will bring us into better alignment with his will and our prayers will follow suit.

1 John 5:14  And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us.

I know in recent weeks I’ve been praying more than I think I ever have. Not just from preparing to teach a Wednesday night class at my church but for a few people I know who are going through some hard times.  I feel calmer and able to handle more problems with ease than usual. Overall prayer helps the believer and edifies God. We sleep for physical rejuvenation and prayer is a Christians spiritual rejuvenation.