Someone recently asked me how my prayer life was and I responded with the typical “It’s good, but could be better!”
For the next few days after that conversation I had that question weighing down very heavy on my heart.
I wish I could say that my prayer life is one defined by consistent authenticity and audacious faith, but if I am being honest prayer is a struggle for me.
Prayer is one of the places I struggle the most in my walk with God. I struggle with slowing down long enough to pray. I struggle with finding a quiet place and getting alone. I struggle with praying big prayers with big faith. I struggle with being consistent with my prayers. I even struggle sometimes with following through with a promise I make to pray for someone.
What I realized recently though is that the place I may struggle the most in prayer is actually my expectancy of what God can do. I’ve discovered my biggest problem with prayer is that I just go through the motions. In my case, it’s not that I doubt God's power; it's just that I so easily fall into a pattern of checklist Christianity.
I make prayer a task instead of a natural part of my relationship with Him. Instead of praying with expectation, I often find myself just going through the motions. I allow it to become more duty than devotion and delight. Prayer was never meant to be part of checklist or just a bunch of empty words tossed up in the air. Jesus warns of this type of heartless, faithless prayer in Matthew 6:7: “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.”
“Prayer without expectancy is prayer without power.”
We can always pray with expectancy, because God always hears and answers our prayers. It may not be a “Yes”, but it will always be what is best, whether we understand it or not. Tim Keller says, “God will either give us what we ask or give us what we would have asked if we knew everything He knows.”
Never forget that we pray to a God who works wonders (Psalm 77:14). A God who raises the dead and heals the brokenhearted (Psalm 147:3). A God who gives sight to the blind and strength to the weak (Isaiah 40:29). A God who is able to do far above anything we could ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20).
Prayer is far too powerful to allow routine or religion to steal its’ effectiveness!
