When Prayer is Frustrating...

For as long as I’ve been following Jesus I’ve thought there was something wrong with me. I can firmly confess that I’ve believed myself to be defective in a certain area of my relationship with God for decades. What area might that be, you ask?

Prayer.

I’ve never been diagnosed with ADHD, I couldn’t blame it on my children (even when they were little). No, I had no good reason why I struggled to pray. It wasn’t from a lack of desire. I wanted to pray. I thought about praying. I made plans to pray, and then I got stuck in the same frustrating pattern of…not praying.

I’d listen as people at church described their prayer times, always with words like: delightful, life-giving and satisfying. While the only adjectives I could use to describe my prayer times were distracted, frustrating and infrequent.

Ugh!

Maybe you can relate? You want to pray. You buy books about prayer, listen to podcasts and sermons, only to find yourself locked in the same maddening cycle.

I have been there, my friend. For many, many years.

It wasn’t until the Lord so mercifully revealed some hang-ups that were hijacking my conversations with him that I finally began to experience breakthrough.

If this sounds like your story, there is hope for you too! Maybe you’re just experiencing some of the same sneaky saboteurs that derailed my prayer life for years. I just released my second book that will help you recognize 7 of these annoying prayer antagonists and it offers tips to help you experience freedom from them! Hallelujah! It can happen!

Don’t give up, friend. You can find joy in prayer, and I’d love to help! My new book, Praying is (not) Hard: Finally Let Go of the Baggage that Keeps You From Talking with God, is chock-full of the strategies that helped me let go of guilt and shame and find freedom in my conversations with God.