Anonymous asked:

Hi, I recently decided to get serious with my relationship with God. I really want to draw close to him and have an intimate relationship with him. But one of the things I’m not so good at is prayer. Most of my prayers sound empty and dry to my ears and sometimes I don’t feel like sitting and talking with God. I really want to get to a point where I am constantly seeking him. Do you have any advice on how I could do this?

 

You know, dear friend: I have never met a single person that ever said, “I’m really good at prayer.  I got that so locked down.”

Almost everyone I know has four major fears about praying:

1) I don’t pray as much as I should.

2) When I do pray, I can’t focus.  It’s like a bad signal.

3) When I pray, it feels like I’m using God or just asking for stuff.

4) I don’t know if prayer is doing anything or I’m just talking to myself.

And it doesn’t help that some preachers are beating you up about the “spiritual disciplines” and piling on the guilt.  I mean it’s not entirely their fault: we all switch to guilt-mode when we try to follow God because for most of us, that’s the only way we know how.

So please allow me the grace to respond to these four fears.

Continue reading “Question: Breaking Through The Fear of Prayer” →