“Pray without ceasing.” Yet, sometimes we can’t.

There is a resistance in our mind that keeps us from reaching out to God. At that moment, we believe that anything is better than praying. Thus, we don’t pray.

We might feel the pull of the Holy Spirit calling us to pray, but we resist.

Thoughts and lies fill our minds: “What if I say the wrong things?”, “What if I don’t pray right?”, “I don’t feel like it, so why bother?”

And before we know it, our prayer life has dried up. We don’t remember the last time we prayed.

So what do we do in those instances? How can we pray when we don’t feel like it?

Why We Struggle with Prayer

There are many reasons why we don’t feel like praying, sin being the main one.

We are sinful beings. As long as we are in the flesh, it will always resist being in communion with God (Romans 8:7). In our walk with God, we will stumble. Yet, the Holy Spirit will convict us of our shortcomings to bring us to repentance and prayer.

Unfortunately, we let our guilt weigh so heavily on our conscience that we avoid God. We forget He is the One who washes us clean (Ephesians 5:26). He is faithful and just to forgive us our repented offenses (1 John 1:9).

Additionally, we rely too heavily on our feelings. They are important in our lives, however, we give them a much greater place than needed. Feelings are like signals. They indicate what is going on inside. Yet, we treat them as the ultimate law of our lives. Thus, we do everything we feel like, regardless of the consequences. 

We also don’t make prayer a priority. We allocate time for every important aspect of our lives, except communicating with God. We treat prayer as an afterthought. As a result, when the need to pray comes, we simply can’t. Our being is not used to this posture of humility, so it resists it. 

Ultimately, a lack of prayer stems from a lack of faith and misunderstanding its true meaning. For many, prayer is a means to an end. When we don’t meet that end, we lose the desire to pray. However, prayer is much more than a tool to satisfy our wants and desires.

What Does Prayer Really Mean?

Prayer is communication with God, talking to and connecting with Him.

In His love and mercy, God has given us complete access to Him (Ephesians 2:18). No matter our state, He welcomes us.

Sadly, many have made this beautiful gift of prayer into a ritual. We’ve attached a lot of rules, restrictions, and regulations to it. While it is good to be disciplined and have time in the day allocated to prayer, it should not be limited to that.

To pray is to fellowship with God. He is that friend we like to talk with, whose company we enjoy, who we can speak to at any time, about anything.

He wants to hear from us. When we don’t pray, we deprive Him of our fellowship, which he paid greatly for (Titus 2:14).

God is our Father, our Friend, our Beloved. We can only experience Him through communing with Him.

Prayer is powerful. It makes space for an imperfect being to enter into direct communion with the Holy One. 

We can’t just randomly meet the president or ruler of our nation. Yet, Jesus the King of kings grants us unrestrained, unlimited access to Him. A wise person would take advantage of that opportunity.

God is a loving Father, He desires to bless us with good and perfect gifts (James 1:17). He promises to give us what we ask for in prayer in His Name (John 14:13-14).

Yet, He wants to be more than our provider, He desires to be our Friend (John 15:14-15). Prayer allows that to happen.

Choosing God Over Our Feelings

Feelings are fickle. They are not reliable sources of motivation. While they are valid, we are called to respond in a manner that reflects righteousness.

Thus, we must choose to pray when we don’t feel like praying. True, it is easier said than done. However, God tells us that His strength is made perfect in our weaknesses (2 Corinthians 12:9).

As we live in the natural world, we battle against the supernatural (Ephesians 6:12). If the enemy succeeds in attacking our prayer life, he can gain access to everything else.

When we don’t feel like praying, we can simply cry out the name of Jesus. When we call upon His name, we are saved (Romans 10:13).

Before giving up on praying because we don’t feel like it, we can pause for a moment and ponder the reason why. Our tendency is to run away. However, a few minutes in reflection can allow the Holy Spirit to bring about the issues of our hearts.

Our silence can be a form of prayer. We can turn our thoughts into prayer by directing them to God. For instance, “I don’t feel like praying” turns into “God, I don’t feel like praying.”

Don’t worry, we’re not gonna offend God. He already knows what’s in our hearts. He promises us peace that surpasses all understanding when we cast our cares unto Him (Philippians 4:6-7).

Here are a few more things we can do in the moment when we don’t feel like praying:

• Pray a Psalm: The Psalms are filled with outpourings of imperfect hearts. The psalmists, especially David, did not shy away from telling it to God as it was. In times of need, we can borrow their words and reach out to God. He’ll take it from there and lead us.
• Listen to Worship Music: Prayer does not have to be a certain/ way: place, posture, length, etc. At times, our hearts and minds need to be comforted. In the Bible, music has been used to soothe a tortured mind (1 Samuel 16:23). Let the words of faith-based music preach to your heart and ready it to talk to the Father.
• Pray Differently: If you usually pray out loud, try writing down your prayers. Go for a walk and talk to God about what you observe: the weather, the trees, the animals and people you encounter, the neighborhood, etc. Tell God about the mundane tasks you may be doing: taking a shower, chores, running errands, etc. Remember, He is always available and cares about every single detail of our lives (Psalm 139:1-4).
• Exercise Your Will Over Your Emotions: More often than not, it’s about the choice we make. Jesus told us to follow Him, we must bear our cross (Luke 14:26-27). That includes acting against our current feelings. Feelings invite us to respond a certain way. Often, we give in to our feelings because we don’t want to be uncomfortable. Yet, at times we are called to make the hard choices and choose God over our emotions.

We can’t predict when we’ll feel like praying or not. Therefore, we need to cultivate a mindset and lifestyle that keeps us connected to God.

The apostle exhorts us to pray without ceasing. This does not mean spending 24 hours on our knees.

It means being in communication with The Lord throughout the day, no matter where or what we are doing.

Conclusion

“Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.” – Colossians 4:2

There will be times when we absolutely have no desire or motivation to pray. However, this should not stop us.

Prayer is fellowshipping with God, and refraining from praying deprives us of His Presence and hearing Him.

Prayer is not about feelings, it is about faith. It is when we don’t feel like praying that we most need to pray. 

When it feels like we can’t see past our emotions, we can simply cry out “Jesus, help”. 

We can pray for help to pray.

And we must pick up our cross daily and choose God over our feelings.