I heard from several people about last Sunday's message on the discipline of prayer. A few said they have always wanted to do better at daily prayer, but have struggled to ever get started. It's no secret that most of us wish we prayed more than we do. But as I mentioned Sunday, this is not about should or ought, it's about putting feet on what we can do. We just have to keep at it.

I got to thinking about all the answers to prayers that we are missing because we never have gotten around to praying for them. James said, "You do not have because you do not ask God." (James 4:2). How much clearer could that be?

He also said, in the same passage, that we don't receive because we ask with the wrong motives, but I am convinced, from my observations of others and from my own inconsistent prayer life, that the biggest problem for most of us is the first part of that equation. I remember reading someone years ago who referred to it as the sin of "asklessness." We just never get around to pray. As the old sales and marketing pitch goes, "If you never ask, the answer is always no."

Grant McDonald wrote a blog a few years ago called "Pray Anyway." It hit me as a cure for asklessness, and a call to cut out the excuses for our lack of prayer. It's a good follow up for Sunday's message and I hope it is a challenge for you:  

When you don't know how to pray, pray anyway! Ignorance is no excuse.

When you don't feel like praying, pray anyway! Depression is no excuse.

When dullness sits on you like a vulture, and a you can't muster enough enthusiasm to change channels, much less to pray, pray anyway! Boredom is no excuse.

When you see no need to pray and no reason to intercede for those about you, recognize this as a sign of impending danger and pray anyway. Blindness is no excuse.

When you've grown spiritually lazy and feel that you'll never be able to pick up your Bible and read it the way you once did, especially pray anyway. Laziness is no excuse.

When you don't understand what the big deal is about prayer, and you think it's overrated because it never did you much good, pray anyway. Immaturity is no excuse.

When you're too tired to remember your own name, and you know God will understand if you don't pray, pray anyway. Fatigue is no excuse.

When you're embarrassed to be back before God, confessing the same sins and admitting the same failures, come on and pray anyway. Shame is no excuse.

When you've been unfaithful and know it and you feel that burden of guilt that makes you want to run and hide under the porch, pray anyway. Sin is no excuse. 

When the nagging voice of the enemy keeps telling you there is no God and even if there were, He'd never have anything to do with a nobody like you, you, pray anyway. Unbelief is no excuse.

We can experience so many blessings simply by rescuing our prayer life from bondage to our emotions and circumstances and distractions. There is no time and there are no conditions in which prayer is not necessary, not helpful, and not the right thing to do. Let us pray.

"Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." (Heb. 4:15)

I am praying for you, as I hope you are for me, and I look forward to seeing you on Sunday.

 --Pastor Ken