When You Don't Feel Like Praying

A few days ago, my wife and I got into an argument about some silly little thing. I thought we were done with the issue, when it cropped up again the next day. I got upset and was not a very happy bald man. Of course, my wife also unhappy with me and honestly neither of had too many fond feelings about one another at the time. So, when we started to get ready to go to bed, there was still tension in the air. It was during this time my wife said, "do you want to pray"?

Honestly, I didn't want to. When we are upset, agitated, angry, etc sometimes the last thing we want to do is pray. But, that is exactly what we need to do at those times.

We did end up praying and it certainly helped.

Our state of mind, situations in life, and emotions can all cause us to have very little desire to spend time in prayer. Since prayer is a relationship with God, and we are sinners, everyone will experience times of fervor and times where God seems distant. Every Christian, once they have prayed long enough, will experience times of both dryness and sweetness within prayer. But, our love for God, which can be expressed by use choosing to pray no matter how we feel about it at the time, shouldn't merely depend on me getting something which feels good out of my prayer.

In every relationship there are going to be hard times. The same is true with our relationship with Jesus, which is founded upon prayer.

If I decided I was going to leave my wife because of an argument, I wouldn't be a very good husband. The same is true if I stopped praying because I didn't feel good about it. In that case, I wouldn't be a very good disciple.

So, the next time you don't feel like praying, do it anyway. I guarantee your Father in heaven will be happy with you when you choose to pray even though you struggle to do it. He isn't looking for perfection, good feelings, or an easy prayer. He just wants a faithful heart - in good times and bad.

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