Struggles in the path of prayer

Dear brethren,

I am so glad that recently many posts are about prayer - intercessory prayer, revival prayer, testimony for an answer to prayer etc.

And I have one question concerning prayer. Do you know what is it to struggle in prayer? I know that sometimes a Christian can be so overwhelmed in prayer that he just bursts out in tears and is even unable to say anything. Here is, I believe, what Paulus describes as "the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered".

Now that's a good thing! But there is also another kind of struggle. Have you ever felt so overwhelmed, burdened and broken that you cannot possibly pray about anything else except about this thing that troubles your heart?

And another kind of struggle: When you very well know with your heart that you have to pray and have to intercede, but all the things coming to mind are the troubles present, past and future... and you feel like so overwhelmed to the point of feeling your body won't endure the pressure very long... Is this an attack from the enemy or rather call to lay all down at Jesus' feet?

During my short Christian life, I have learned that if Satan wants to destroy a Christian, he will try to destroy his prayer life! Not necesseraly tempt him to sin openly but he wants to destroy a Christian's prayer life. And I know we should be careful not to be just emotional Christians... when I kneel to pray, I want to speak though to God from my heart, not to "play prayer" while my mind is totally somewhere else.

I hope, you understand what I mean.

God bless you!

"And I have one question concerning prayer. Do you know what is it to struggle in prayer? I know that sometimes a Christian can be so overwhelmed in prayer that he just bursts out in tears and is even unable to say anything. Here is, I believe, what Paulus describes as "the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered"."

I have experienced this.

"Have you ever felt so overwhelmed, burdened and broken that you cannot possibly pray about anything else except about this thing that troubles your heart?"

And this.

"And another kind of struggle: When you very well know with your heart that you have to pray and have to intercede, but all the things coming to mind are the troubles present, past and future... and you feel like so overwhelmed to the point of feeling your body won't endure the pressure very long... Is this an attack from the enemy or rather call to lay all down at Jesus' feet?"

I would tend to say it's an attack of the enemy; the devil always gives himself away. If it sounds accusatory, like there is no answer for your problems, then you can bet it's the father of lies. Jesus always gives us an answer; He always tries to help us through our problems. I have had times where the devil's accusations were so loud and insistent that I have been physically sick from depression. I have learned to stand up to that coward if this ever happens and resist him in Jesus' Name.

And you are absolutely right about the devil wanting to short circuit our prayer life; he will do ANYTHING to keep us away from communion with Jesus.

Thanks brother for your reply!

I had no peace in my heart for several days and prayed over the matter. I did not know the reason why but I knew our Master said: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (John 14:27) So I prayed over the matter and God turned my eyes to Himself. Now I praise Him because I have peace in my soul and want to know Him more, to gaze at Him, see His beauty... Isn't that wonderful?!

May we each new day find out how GREAT indeed is our GOD!

God bless you!

Dear Sister,
You have raised some very good questions that all of us that know the vital necessity of prayer have had to deal with. In the first place we must come before the Lord through the blood of Jesus and remove any grounds of accusation which the enemy would attempt to accuse us with and bring us under a state of condemnation. God has called us to fight the good fight of faith, and the enemy is attempting to keep us so tied up with our own problems that we will be of little use to the Lord to pray and intercede for what is on His heart. God does want to meet our needs, and we must cast all of our cares upon Him, knowing that He cares for us. We can claim the promises of God to get our own needs met, and then we can turn our attention to what the Spirit is wanting to pray through us, for He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God, and we really do not know how to pray as we ought to.

We must be able to discern the difference between a heavy weight that the enemy is trying to weigh us down with, and a burden that the Lord has laid on our heart. The weight from the enemy needs to be cast off, and the burden from the Lord must be prayed through. When the burden has been prayed through there will be a releasing of that burden and a peace will prevail.

giving grateful praise as we come
before His presence:
Psalm 100

1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his[a];
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

[During my short Christian life, I have learned that if Satan wants to destroy a Christian, he will try to destroy his prayer life! Not necesseraly tempt him to sin openly but he wants to destroy a Christian's prayer life.]

So true, you nailed it.

I understand what you may be going through. Many times have I went to pray and the concerns of life kept creeping in to the point where your eyes and heart is off of entering in. It is an attack from our adversary.

The way I deal with this is to read your Bible. This helps put your attention on Christ. You read until you know your total attention is on him (Christ.)

Amen songsings the glory of the expressed word of god precisely the reason god bought forth and breathed his will to us ,,,thank god for his word ,which can not be divorced from his person ,as amen thinks so he is and and he thinks so he speaks , and so it is with god ,to connect with who god is ,is to dwell on what he thinks and consequently speaks ....

So blessed by what all of you have shared!

The weight from the enemy needs to be cast off, and the burden from the Lord must be prayed through. When the burden has been prayed through there will be a releasing of that burden and a peace will prevail.

I agree. I read in a book of Ravenhill that someone prayed: "Lord, I do not want to carry burdens others make for me, nor burdens the devil makes for me, nor burdens the church wants to put on me, nor burdens from myself. But I do eant to carry the burdens YOU make for me." Amen!

And something else about the burdens God gives... He gives them to us so that we may be His co-workers or that His will might be fulfilled through us. And secondly, God always gives us burdens in prayer... because He really wants to answer that prayer. I hope you understand what I mean. The following quote from Jean-Nicolas Grou explains it better:

"For who is it who gives you the desire (to pray)? God, of course. Does He give it you in order that it may stay unfulfilled? That is impossible. He implants within you a desire for something with the intention of giving you that very thing; He will infallibly give it to you if you ask for it in the right way; and He begs you, He urges you, He assists you to make the petition."

And then I understand why apostle John says that if "we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him." Praise God!

Actually songsings,

that is what God teaches me these days. To focus on Christ and have fellowship with Him and with the Father.

A Call to Prayer by J.C. Ryle may be read in its entirety;

http://www.chapellibrary.org/literature/epub-reader/?fldCode=ctpr

Wonderful book! Thanks for sharing!