Hindrances To Prayer
Why Can I Not Pray?
Many hindrances beset the road to personal dependence on prayer. First, Satan does not want us to be devoted to prayer; if we are, he will have to be far more active to be effective with his deceptions.
Our closeness to God overcomes hindrances to praying. Identifying and overcoming some of these personal obstacles that keep us from being close to God will enable us to be more prayerful. This thought may make our lives count for more, but when we become proud of our prayer life, we have lost its benefits. Failure to identify and overcome the obstacles that keep us from being close to God will keep us shackled to worry, doubt, fear, and other sins.
Being close to God requires dependence on prayer. But on the other hand, being close to God frees us from worry, doubt, fear, and many other sins.
There are at least three attitudes that can keep us from prayer. Let us examine these here.
Indolence: Laziness or not caring for some issues.
Indolence toward God would be not caring about what is best, correct, or God's way. The opposite would be caring about what is proper and essential to God.
The following people cared about what God cared about and showed their concern by praying about God's concerns.
Paul in Rom. 1:9-10 says this. “God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you 10 in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you.”
Paul was concerned about others. He was concerned about their Godly conduct and wanted to be able to help them in their daily walk in the Christian way. Therefore, traveling to Rome would not be a struggle but a joy.
Paul wrote this about Epraphas in Col. 4:12: “Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.”
Epraphas was always wrestling (straining with body and soul) in prayer for other Christians that they might stand firm in all the will of God and be mature and fully assured of their walk with God.
James says this about Elijah in James 5:17: “Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.”
James said that Elijah was a man just like us, and he earnestly prayed that it might not rain, and it didn't for three and a half years. So Elijah prayed for a miracle so God's power and authority might be shown to Ahab, Jezebel, and the Bail worshipers.
God's word urges us to care about what God cares about and pray. James 5:16 says this:"...The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."
When we trust God and his ways, we can grow closer to God and be more consistent in prayer by repenting about not caring about God's things.
By repenting, we will be turning toward God and caring about what God cares about. When this is us, we must repent and ask God's forgiveness. We will be closer to God because He will be closer to us. We will be caring about the same things.
II. Busyness: Choosing the wrong things to fill our time.
We can use this as an excuse for not spending more time in prayer. Let's recognize what we say when we are too busy to pray. Just why are we too busy to pray?
Being too busy to pray may indicate the presence of three evil forces.
The first force is not caring about the right things or not being concerned about people.
The second force, Satan, wants us to do our own thing and only be concerned about ourselves and our interests.
The third force is pride: the feeling that what we want to do or accomplish can be done with and through our abilities. We are depending and trust in our mind, strength, amd energy.
Who are we kidding? Let us again add a verse to our thought that gives an answer to the first evil force.
Matt. 6:33 "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Choosing to seek God’s Kingdom things first will keep us from being too busy to pray. PRAYER WILL BE A PART OF WHAT WE ARE BUSY WITH. This verse will direct our attention back to God and prayer. We will pray when we care about God's things and ways.
To help us with the second evil force, look at this verse. Matt. 6:24: "No one can serve, two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."
These two verses help us put the first things first. And all others will fall into place.
When we are only busy with our things - our interests – we are too busy.
We want to recognize one thing as we focus on the third evil force. Trusting in our strength negates the fact found in Phil. 4:13. It says, "I can do everything through him who gives me strength."
Yes, we can do everything, but we need to remember who has the strength and who will give us the power to do whatever we want. Jesus supplies us with our abilities, so let us keep that in mind. When we keep this in mind, our prayers will draw us closer to our Heavenly Father, and prayer will be more natural for us as we will be thankful to Him for all we have in Christ Jesus. We will be pretty busy with prayer.
To summarise, busyness is a symptom of not putting God first. Busyness is a sign of not seeking his Kingdom first. Busyness is a sign of choosing the wrong master – ourselves and what we choose - "Mammon - Money."
Again, the only way to improve our "Prayer Life" is to repent. Repent of the sin of not caring about what God cares about. Repent of not seeking the Kingdom of God and his righteousness first. Repent of being too busy with our interests.
Remember, an outward form of righteousness, like the things associated with "church membership," does not necessarily mean we possess an inward righteousness - His righteousness. His character is caring about what he cares about, people.
We will not be too busy to pray when we repent and care about what He cares about. Instead, we will be closer to God. We will care about what God cares about. We will talk to God about things we both care about.
III. Faithlessness
Sometimes we know what we should be doing but don't do it. Sometimes it includes praying. Sometimes we don't pray even though we know we should.
A good passage to remember is Heb. 10:19-25 ..., let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.... (God cannot be faithless.)
If we feel that God does not care for us or does not have a concern for us, do we say to ourselves, "Why pray"? This attitude is faithlessness. God cares for us. Look at John 3:16. Likewise, He cares for others. When we draw away from God, we feel He does not care. This causes us not to pray. We must repent of our faithlessness, returning to a caring and loving God. Then we will make prayer a part of our life because we know and show He cares for us.
IV. Circumstances
Do we quit praying because God didn't answer our prayers when and how we thought He should? If we feel God has not heard us and has not responded to us in the "best" way, we need to reconsider.
We should not have quit praying. We should have looked a little closer at God. We need to look again at ourselves and our relationship with God. Do we understand God and how he works? Do we realize what God allows to be done for his will? Do we love him? Do we know he loves us? Do we know His purpose for our life? Are we called to His purpose? Do we care about His purpose in our life? These are all questions we must ask ourselves. The answers will call us to prayer.
This passage will be helpful at this point. Romans 8:26-39 (NIV) “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. 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. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
We see from Rom. 8:28 that God is answering prayers continuously. He is causing all things to work out for "good"- His good to those who love Him and are called to His purposes. Are we accepting His "good" in our life? Are we accepting His "purposes" on the earth? If we feel that God is waiting to give us an answer, we may be tempting God to give us what we want and what we think is good rather than accepting what "His good" is for us. We need to repent and accept God's "good" in our life so that God's "purposes" will be fulfilled.
We need to be as aware as we can of God's purpose in our life. We also need to apply James 4:1-10 to our lives.
James 4:1-10 (NIV)
“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
“God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”
"Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up."
God's faithful words enable us to be constant in acceptable prayer. We need to be sorry for our sins and the sins of the world. This sorrow will help us keep praying. We need to desire to know God and his will better. This also will help us keep praying acceptable prayers. We need to see and accept ourselves as God's servants, and when we do, we will keep praying as God's dear child.
(WRITTEN 10/10/91, REWRITTEN 2/3/95, 1/9/09)
Reviewed 4/4/2020
Larry E. Whittington