This morning, I’d like to talk with you about a spiritual discipline which is at the core of the Christian life. This is something which everyone acknowledges is important, and valuable, and rewarding. We all agree that it’s a good thing. And yet, we may also hope that no one inquires too closely as to our own practice of this spiritual discipline. You’ve probably guessed that what I’m referring to is prayer; specifically, private prayer, sometimes called “secret prayer”. That is, prayer that is just between you and God. And lest there be any doubt, the Scriptures do confirm that this is something we should be doing, that this is a normal part of the Christian life.
In Matthew’s gospel, Our Lord says this:
“6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Matthew 6:6)
“When you pray”, not “if you pray”. There is no ambiguity here; we are to go into our room and close the door, so that we are alone with our Father. And we are then to pray, to direct our thoughts to him, either silently or aloud. And as an inducement to do so, we are given a promise, that God will see what we are doing and will reward us.
Good. So we have both an implied command and a promise. Then why don’t we do it? Why don’t we pray? Or, if we do pray, why do we often feel guilty that we aren’t praying as frequently, or as much, or as fervently as we should? What’s holding us back? And my answer is that there are several reasons why we struggle to consistently practice the spiritual discipline of prayer, despite the fact that we know it is commanded, and despite the fact that we know it will be rewarded. It’s not all your fault. What I’d like to us to do is to examine five of those hindrances, five of those impediments to prayer, so that we can overcome them instead of being defeated by them. And we’ll also look at some of the promises the Scriptures give us concerning prayer, to further strengthen our resolve.
Why is it difficult to pray? Reason one. Because we’ve been programmed to think that every minute of every day must be optimized. We’ve been told that we have to maximize our productivity; we must ensure that we are being as useful as we possibly can. The world tells us that’s how we measure our value, by our productive work. And so we measure and track everything, even our so-called “leisure” activities. Instead of just going for a walk, we count the number of steps we take in a day, and compare it to the number of steps we took last week, and the number of steps that other people take, and whether our number is increasing or decreasing. We have devices on our wrists that measure our REM sleep and our overnight resting hear rate, so that we are optimizing our health even when we are unconscious. We judge everything by the standard of efficiency: benefits gained and work output produced versus time and effort invested.
And against all that, we have prayer. By all appearances, one of the least productive things you could do. Literally just sitting or kneeling, and thinking. That’s all. And not even what you might consider productive thinking, like strategizing, or planning. No, just talking to God. Praising him for who he is and for what he has done. Confessing our sins. Giving thanks. Asking God for what we need and want. No goals achieved. No metrics tracked. By the world’s standard, it seems like an unproductive waste of time. And by the way, if you are tracking prayer metrics, like the number of requests prayed for, or average length of time in prayer, please stop, because it’s ridiculous. Prayer is a relationship, a conversation. It isn’t something to be optimized, or maximized, or made more efficient.
So. How do we convince our modern, productivity-obsessed selves that prayer is time well spent, even if we don’t have any metrics, or objective criteria, by which to measure its value? One way is to consider the example of Christ. This is a man who has only about three years to accomplish his purpose, which is by the way, the most important thing that anyone has ever done. It’s absolutely critical that he succeed. And while other great men of history had decades to complete their life’s work, he has only about 36 months. In that brief time, he has to recruit and train the men who will carry on his work after he is gone. He has to travel widely and preach to thousands of people, making sure that his teachings are clear and complete, because those teachings will serve as the basis for all of humanity, in every time and place and culture, to understand God’s plans and purposes for their lives. He has three years to communicate that entire theological system. In addition, he is carrying out an ongoing healing ministry. And this healing ministry, coupled with his preaching and teaching, results in huge throngs of people following him, seeking him out, at all times of the day and night, wherever he went. For example, Mark tells us that:
“7 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed. 8 When they heard about all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. 9 Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him. . . . 20 Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat.” (Mark 3:7-9, 20)
Jesus has a great deal of incredibly important, difficult, and time-consuming work to accomplish in a very short time. He is constantly mobbed by people who want to see him, to hear him, to be healed by him, such that he and disciples can’t even sit down to a meal without people crowding into the house. You think you’re busy? I’m going to go out on a limb and state that no one, ever, was busier than Jesus, or had more demands on his time. And yet, not only did Jesus take time to pray, but he repeatedly blocked out extended time for prayer. We read this in Luke:
“15 Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. 16 But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” (Luke 5:15-16)
“12 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. 13 When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles:” (Luke 6:12-13)
If we aren’t regular in prayer, the issue isn’t that we don’t have enough time. Every one of us has more time than Jesus did. The issue may simply be that we see other things as more urgent and more important than prayer. Other things we do with our time may give us more of a sense of accomplishment. Other things produce outcomes that can be more easily measured. Other things seem to be a more productive use of our time. But the example of our Lord tells a different story. As incredibly busy as he was, and as many demands on his time as there were, he still chose to make time for prayer. Because he knew that prayer was vitally important, the spiritual engine for everything else he had to do. And if even Jesus, the Son of God, needed to pray in order to accomplish his work, don’t you think we do?
Here's an interesting historical anecdote: Once, when Martin Luther was asked about his plans for the day, he responded, “Work, work from early until late. In fact, I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” Again, Martin Luther was an incredibly busy man. But in between translating the entire Bible into German, founding the Protestant movement, reforming church worship, founding the University of Wittenberg, preaching and writing — his complete works span 72 bound volumes — in the midst of all that, he made time to pray. Because Luther knew that the seemingly unproductive time he spent in prayer was the source and foundation for everything else he accomplished.
Why else is prayer difficult? Second reason. Because prayer requires that we focus our minds, and the modern world is eroding our ability to focus. It is shortening our attention spans. In one generation, we’ve gone from epic films like “Lawrence of Arabia”, which ran for 3 hours and 47 minutes, plus a 15 minute intermission, to TikTok videos which last only a few seconds. English professors report that many students enter college having never read a single book from beginning to end, because their high school teachers only assigned excerpts or short pieces, rather than whole novels or plays. No longer do we sit down and write a letter; instead, we type a few sentences into an email. And all of that idle time we used to have, waiting in line at the bank, or at a bus stop, when our minds were free to wander, times when perhaps we struck up a conversation with a stranger—those idle times are now filled with videos on our cell phones. The next time you’re someplace where people are waiting, like the doctor’s office, look around. Everyone is staring down at their phones. No one is reading a book or a magazine. No one is just sitting and thinking. People aren’t chatting with each other. No, everyone is filling their time with constant digital stimulation.
So what do we do, given that our ability to focus, and specifically, our ability to focus our minds in prayer, has been undermined by our digital devices? Well, for a start, don’t take your phone with you when you go to pray, so you won’t be tempted to look at it. Also, use a prayer list. When your mind starts to wander, look at the list and refocus. But other than that, you simply have to persevere and keep praying. The only way to strengthen your ability to focus and concentrate is to do things that require focusing and concentrating. So turn off your phone and read a novel. Go for a walk without your phone. Try turning your phone to black and white. Or better yet, turn it off altogether, except for specific times of the day when you intentionally set aside time to look at it. That way, you’re not letting it dictate to you that you must look at it whenever it beeps.
Reason number three. Prayer is sometimes difficult because it seems like nothing is happening. Prayer is difficult because sometimes I pray, and pray, and pray without any apparent result. This is a common challenge for believers, actually I would say, a universal challenge. For example, we’ve all prayed for a family member to come to faith, perhaps for years, without seeing any obvious change in their attitude toward spiritual things. We’ve all prayed for physical healing, for ourselves or someone else, without a recovery from illness. And the temptation in those cases is simply to give up, to conclude that for whatever reason, God is not going to grant us what we are asking. Because if he was going to answer our prayer, he surely would have done it by now wouldn’t he? But there are several reasons why the answer to your prayers may be delayed. Let’s assume that whatever you are praying for is a good thing; something that is consistent with the character of God, something that you would expect would be pleasing to him. And so why doesn’t God answer, at least not right away?
• First of all, it may be that God is acting, but in ways you can’t see. In the case of the unbelieving relative, we can’t observe the working of the Holy Spirit in someone’s heart. In some people, there’s a sudden conversion as God suddenly opens their eyes to the truth. In others, faith develops slowly, from hearing the gospel, and observing Christians, and mulling things over, and finally coming to the conclusion that this is true. Everyone is different. So be patient, and don’t assume that because you can’t observe any change, nothing is happening.
• Second, it may be that God intends to answer the prayer, but the timing isn’t right. For us, the timing is always right, and that time is now. Now, God. Or how about now. Or maybe now. OK then, now. Or . . . now. But God is orchestrating a global plan for all of humanity, and whatever it is that we are praying for is just one piece.
We don’t know how that piece fits into his plan. And so God’s plan may include a “yes”, but a “yes” sometime in the future when it will further God’s overall purposes.
• Third, it could be that God is delaying the answer in order to test and build your faith. If you pray for a while and give up, maybe you didn’t really believe God would do it in the first place. Maybe you were just covering your bases. “I’ll try asking God, what can I lose?” But if you pray, and continue to pray, and then continue to pray some more, long past when you had hoped for an answer, that says that your hope truly is in God. And persevering in prayer not only reveals faith, it also builds faith.
These are all just possibilities; there are others. When answers to our prayers don’t come immediately, God doesn’t tell us why. But he does tell us that he wants us to keep praying, and not to give up. Jesus told this parable to make that point:
“1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ 4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’” (Luke 18:1-5)
Now, God is not like this judge. That’s the point. The point is that, if even this ungodly judge could be persuaded to grant the widow’s prayer because of her stubborn persistence, how much more will God be willing to answer our prayers, if we persist in asking him.
This next reason, reason number four, is one that perhaps you haven’t thought of. Prayer is difficult because prayer is spiritual warfare. Which means that when we pray, we are opposing Satan; we are challenging his power and control over this world. Whenever we pray that God will do something, whatever it may be, we are praying in opposition to Satan’s interests. Satan doesn’t want God to act, ever. Satan doesn’t want God to build and extend his kingdom. Satan doesn’t want people to come to know Christ or to follow him. Satan doesn’t want God to bless us, or strengthen us, or protect us, or heal us. He doesn’t want any of the things.
What are Satan’s interests, then? What does he want? Jesus told us.
“10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)
Satan has one overriding objective, one purpose: to steal and kill and destroy. That’s all. And so, whenever you pray that God will bring his power to bear, that God will bring life, and light, and love, and joy, and peace into a situation — whenever you do that, you are opposing Satan. You are working to loosen Satan’s grip on this world, you are seeking to defeat his purposes, you are warring against him. You are laboring to take back what he has stolen, to protect what he is seeking to destroy, to restore and bring back to life what was dead, to build and restore what he has ruined. That is what you are doing. Whether you realize it or not, every time you pray to God, you are opposing Satan and engaging in spiritual warfare.
And why does that make praying difficult? Because Satan fights back. He does not willingly relinquish what he has stolen. He will not graciously retreat, nor willingly cease his evil and destructive activities. He fights back. Because the one thing Satan fears is the power of God. And when you pray, you are enlisting that power, you are claiming that power, you are asking God to come down out of heaven and put an end to the wicked schemes of the devil. You are asking God to lay waste to Satan’s kingdom, you are asking God to exert his dominion over the enemy of our souls.
Satan hates and fears God’s power, because he knows that he cannot prevail against God. He cannot win. If God fights against him, he will be defeated. And that is exactly what we are asking God to do when we pray. Whenever we ask God to do anything that is good, or constructive, or redemptive, or loving, we are asking God to wage war against, and to defeat, the devil. And therefore, Satan does not want us to pray, not at all. He will try to prevent us from praying however he can. Because our prayers are what brings God’s power into a situation, and when that happens, he is defeated.
Now, maybe you don’t really want to engage in spiritual warfare. You’re a lover, not a fighter. Too bad. You’ve been drafted. If you are a follower of Christ, you are on the battlefield. You have no choice about that. Your only choice is to fight or be defeated. However, the good news is that our weapons are more powerful than those of our enemy.
“4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” (2 Corinthians 10:4)
Whatever power Satan has in this world, whatever control or influence he has over people, and organizations, and situations—whatever power he has to deceive, and steal, and destroy—he is no match for the power of God. When we do battle with the weapons that God has given to us, Satan’s power bases, his strongholds, are demolished. Flattened. Utterly destroyed. And what are those weapons, the weapons that God has given us? Paul writes this in Ephesians chapter six:
“10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:10-17)
Who are we fighting against? We are fighting against the devil. We are fighting against the rulers, and authorities, and “the powers of this dark world”. We are fighting against “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms”. Which sounds terrifying, frankly. And it would be, if God had not fully equipped us for this fight. But he has. What has he given us? All of these things: The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, feet which are shod and made ready for action by the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God
God has fully equipped us for the battle. We lack nothing. We don’t need tanks or howitzers. We don’t need money or political influence. We have everything we need to fight and win. And what do all these things enable us to do? They allow us to “stand firm”, and not be overcome or driven back. Paul repeats the word “stand” three times. Our weapons also allow us to “extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one”; in other words, we have the power to render his weapons useless and his attacks ineffective. And so, we cannot be defeated by Satan if we rely on God’s power, and make use of the armor and weapons that he has provided to us. But there’s one more thing. Paul continues:
18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.” (Ephesians 6:18)
Prayer is the key that unlocks the power of all the other weapons. Prayer unlocks the power of truth, the power of righteousness, the power of the gospel, the power of faith, the power of salvation, the power of the word of God. Prayer is what makes us victorious. And that is why Satan will do anything he can to stop us from praying. Because when we pray, all the power of all those weapons is activated. And then he doesn’t stand a chance.
What will Satan do to keep us from praying? You know the answer to this, because you’ve experienced it. We all have.
• You intend to pray at a certain time, and then you get a phone call from an old friend that you haven’t heard from in months.
• You intend to pray, but then you get a text from your daughter asking if you can come over and watch her kids.
• You sit down to pray, and suddenly remember an important email you forgot to send
• You close your door to pray, and you get a headache. Or you sneeze and have to get up and get a hankie. Or you have to go to the bathroom.
• You begin to pray, and suddenly you lose your ability to concentrate; your mind starts spinning out of control with all kinds of thoughts: something someone said to you yesterday; a bill that’s coming due; wondering if you’re getting the flu, trying to remember if you got the flu shot, trying to remember if Bobby Kennedy said we should or shouldn’t get the flu shot . . .
In other words, Satan will do anything he can to distract us, or discourage us, or deter us from praying. So what do we do when that happens? First, we remember that we are in a spiritual battle. And then we say, “not today, Satan”. We resolve that we are going to pray, no matter what. We start by removing ourselves from distractions, as I noted earlier. And then if something comes up that we do actually need to attend to right now, we go do it and then immediately come back to prayer, instead of getting sidetracked for the rest of the day. If our mind starts to wander, we stop and write down whatever is intruding on our thoughts so that we can come back to it later, and then we go back to praying. We do what we need to do, but we don’t allow ourselves to be deterred from going to God in prayer. Because it’s that important.
Let me give you one last reason that prayer is difficult. Reason number five. It exposes us. What do I mean? How can being alone and praying expose you? Because it brings us face to face with God. Think about it. All through the day, our private thoughts are just that—private. No one else can hear them. No one else knows what we are thinking. If there’s any sin in there, any pride, or greed, or lust, or malice, or envy; no one knows but us. To all the world, we can put on a face of holiness and virtue, even if we know in our hearts that isn’t completely true. Not only that, but we can often conceal sinful acts. Someone once defined “character” as what you do when no one is watching. Because sometimes our public behavior and our private behavior can differ.
But when we come before God in prayer, all of that is exposed, because God sees everything. We can’t hide from him and we can’t fool him. As the Bible says,
“For your ways are in full view of the Lord,
and he examines all your paths.” (Proverbs 5:21)
“12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:12-13)
God sees, and knows, everything that we think, or feel, or say, or do. All of it. Likewise, the word of God exposes our inner thoughts and attitudes because it comes from God, who knows us. Which is why Biblical preaching speaks to the heart as well as to the head. I won’t ask whether that is intimidating, because I know the answer. Of course it is. And our natural response to that realization, our instinctive reaction to the knowledge that we are naked before God is to run away and hide ourselves. Like Adam and Eve did, in the garden, when they realized that they were naked. Our natural reaction is not to come and stand before God, fully exposed to his view. But that is exactly what God invites us to do, and what we should do. Because in Christ, God no longer sees us as sinful. He sees as as holy. We stand before him clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Yes, God still knows everything we have done, and we need to confess our sins to him and repent of them. But our status in Christ is “forgiven”; our status is in Christ is “holy”; our status in Christ is “beloved”. And so we can come to him with confidence, and assurance, and joy. As Paul writes,
“12 In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.” (Ephesians 3:12)
And the author Hebrews tells us,
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:15-16)
The prophet Micah wrote this, and I love the imagery of this verse:
“You will again have compassion on us;
you will tread our sins underfoot
and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.” (Micah 7:19)
God has taken all of our sins and cast them into the deepest part of the ocean. They are at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, six thousand fathoms beneath the water. They will never resurface; God will never bring them back up to accuse us or condemn us. They are gone forever. And so they are no longer a barrier to fellowship with our Father. Therefore, we can come to God in prayer freely and openly, knowing that we will be received as beloved children; that we will be welcomed, and not rejected or condemned. When we come to God in prayer, the expression on his face is not one of anger, or disappointment, or disapproval. His face is that of a loving father, glad to have us with him and glad to fellowship with us. He is always glad to have us come to him in prayer; always, without exception.
In conclusion, let’s pray, and persevere in prayer.
• Let’s pray, despite the fact that the world views prayer as an unproductive use of our time. Because Christ demonstrated that prayer is critically important to enable everything else we do.
• Let’s pray, despite the fact that we sometimes struggle to focus.
• Let’s pray, despite the fact that our prayers aren’t always answered right away. Because Christ tells us to persevere, knowing that God loves and desires to bless us.
• Let’s pray, despite the fact that Satan opposes our prayers. Because we have the power to defeat him.
• And finally, let’s pray, despite the fact that prayer exposes us to God. Because God sees us as holy in Christ, and he always welcomes us into his presence.
