When It’s Hard To Pray

Podcast Sometimes life throws you a curve ball, whether someone you care for passes away or you end up in the hospital yourself and you wonder if you’re going to make it. Times like these you start to wonder if God is still with you or He has turned against you. It’s a sad thing to admit, but not a lot of us are as good as Job. The first thing we think of when we’re hurting is, “Why God why? Why are you allowing this thing to happen?” As if God is to blame. We get offended with the Lord. Instead of worshiping God like Job did, we automatically blame Him for allowing us to go through pain. We don’t want to talk to Him anymore. It’s like He’s punishing us and we’re offended with Him. When we’re offended with someone our automatic response is not to talk to them. We’re hurting and we want to shut ourselves away from the one that is hurting us. Then there are those times when we do something we know we shouldn’t have done or said, and we feel guilty and bad about it. Instead of talking it out with the Lord we avoid Him. We’re like Adam and Eve. We run away from the Lord and we hide from Him. Often we turn around and like to blame someone else for our sins. We tell ourselves we wouldn’t have done what we did if they didn’t provoke us to it. Then when that doesn’t work, we convince ourselves that God surely is mad at us now and will likely punish us and reprimand us. We tell ourselves He’s forgiven us too many times and He’s likely sick of us by now. We’re too ashamed to talk to Him and so we stop talking to Him. From my experience the only solution to all these presumptions of what God must feel and think about me, is to make myself talk to Him. There is no other way around it, we must make ourselves talk to Him. The sooner I talk to Him the sooner I can feel better about myself because again and again, He shows me that I err in my assumptions of what He thinks about me. Again and again He shows me I am very much loved by Him and He is always there to help me. He is for me and never against me. The other day someone I love ended up in the emergency room and for a time there I thought the result was going to be cancer. When I went home I couldn’t talk to the Lord. All I could think of was, “Why Lord why?” But still that was better than nothing, at least I was talking to Him. In a little while, even though it was hard for me, I followed it up with, “I can’t do this life. I just don’t have the heart to do this life, Lord. Please help me.” And the Lord beautifully responded to me in my spirit and said to me, “Yes, you can. You have Me. I will help you.” And then He told me, “Everything is going to be all right. All is well.” He assured me that my loved one is going to be all right and that comforted me. That was enough. He comforted me and I found His strength. Even though I was so upset at the Lord, I knew I couldn’t blame Him. He might have allowed it but it’s not His fault. He showed me again as in times past that Satan is very much alive and is creating havoc in people’s lives to destroy them. My only answer always is the Lord – talking to Him. I may go through suffering and affliction that might make me cringe and make me wish so much I could run away from all my pain, but still God is faithful. He will never fail. All I need to do is to talk to Him about it and let Him know how I feel and what I desire for Him to do for me. Because He is faithful and will never fail I can face this life. The sooner we talk to the Lord and face Him with our fears and our hurts, the sooner we will feel better in our soul. In the process we will find a Savior that is full of grace, mercy and compassion. Prophet Jeremiah puts it this way:

“It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.” {Lamentations 3:22-23}

Prayer

Father I thank You that Your mercy and compassion never fails. I thank You that Your love endures forever for me. I thank You that You gave Your life at the cross for the sole purpose of saving me from all of my sins, and giving me Your wonderful Spirit so that I can belong to You forever and ever. I thank You so much for You Lord Jesus for Your wonderful work at Calvary because through it I can find Your grace, Your love, and Your forgiveness.  Father, sometimes it is a challenge for me to come to You and open up to You. I’m always afraid of Your judgment. But Your word said that You did not come to our world to condemn us, but to save us. Sometimes I go through pain and suffering that hurt me so much it is hard to talk to You about it. Sometimes I feel You’ve turned against me. But please Lord Jesus, help me anyway to come and talk to You. Help me Father to talk to You all the time because Lord, Your love endures, You will never fail me. Please Father, help me to have faith in Your love for me and talk to You. I know Lord that the only answer to all my unhappiness in this life is in always having a wonderful heart to heart talk with You. Your love is faithful, You will never fail me. Help me Savior to talk to You everyday and be transparent with You. I ask this in Your most wonderful and precious name, Jesus. Thank You, Father. Amen.

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Rp9/2017