Just Pray

Philippians 4:⁶ “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.”

Prayer is the difference between what you can achieve by your own strength and what God can achieve by His own strength. When you look at the impossibilities in life, the gap usually is a prayer gap. Apart from offense, another thing that has hindered a lot of people from really praying is going by their feelings. I cannot count how many times I have heard someone say, ‘Pastor, I do not really feel like praying.’ I always say you pray only two times in life; firstly, when you feel like praying, and secondly, when you do not feel like praying. Every other time, you do not have to pray.

So, check, ‘do I feel like praying?’. That is the time to pray. ‘I don’t feel like praying’; that is the time to pray. You cannot wait until you feel like praying before you pray. The truth is that most times you have to do things because you have to. The beauty of it is that when you act your way into feeling, you begin to feel your way into acting. So, you act your way into feeling like praying, and you keep acting it and acting it. After a while, you will begin to feel it, to feel like praying. And because you are feeling it, then you are able to take action and do what you need to do. So, you do not wait until you feel like praying anymore, you just go and pray. When it is prayer time, you just go and pray whether you feel like it or not. You say but Pastor, what if it is not flowing? Do not worry, just pray, it will flow. Do I get an ‘Amen’?

The first thing that hinders prayer is offense. The second thing that hinders prayer is going by feelings. The third thing that hinders folks from approaching God is looking at their weaknesses. Most times, when we look at our weaknesses, we are like what is the point of prayer? Why do I need to bother God? I will just keep to myself; I am so unworthy anyway. Why trouble a Holy God with an unholy child, what is the point? We look at ourselves, at our failures, at us our struggles and we conclude that there is no point in praying. But with prayer and God, it is mostly about the sincerity of your heart. If you are going to get anything about prayer, get this. There are other dynamics, of course, but it is mostly about the sincerity of your heart.

If you can find that place of vulnerability and sincerity in your heart, and you come to God as you are, you will discover that your weaknesses can take you to places in God that your strengths can never take you. How far can you go in the presence of God with your strength?

Prayer (song): All that I am, all that I have I lay them down before You, oh Lord. All my regrets, all my acclaims, the joy, and the pain, I’m making them Yours. Lord, I offer my life to You… Amen!