Preacher on the Run…

I can be a horrible conversation partner. Just ask my wife. There are times when I talk too much. There are times when I don’t talk enough. More often, I don’t listen enough (or at least well enough). Then there are times when I listen too well – in other words, I hear things that were not said. Conversation can be hard. So many ways to fail, mess it up, and do it poorly. But that doesn’t mean I should stop having conversations. Quite the opposite.

Recently I realized the same is true with prayer. It can be hard. There are many ways in which we can feel like failures or that we have difficulty with conversation with our Heavenly Father. Similar to conversations with my wife, prayer although hard doesn’t mean I should stop doing it. The harder I find prayer to be the more I should push into it. When prayer is hard, it’s an opportunity to grow in my communication skills with my Father.

Unfortunately, I allow the hard to pull me away from conversations. This happens with my wife and with God. But it mustn’t be the case. However, the first step toward better conversations, in prayer and with people, is to identify why we find it difficult. That is the core of Keith Evan’s article, “5 Reasons Prayer is Hard“. I’ve found each of the five Keith mentions to be in my thinking about prayer from time to time, but identifying them (and the antidote) encourages me to keep improving my communication skills with God.

What about you? Do you find prayer to be hard or relatively easy for you? Why so? As always I’d love to hear from you and what your experience in prayer (or communication in general for that matter) has been. The good news I’ve experienced is that just like my wife, God is never mad at me for trying to have better conversations more frequently. Don’t forget to be with the Lord’s people on the Lord’s day.

Until Next Time…