Is Praying that Hard?

Prayers always seemed tiring and boring. If you were like me, younger me preferred to worship God than to pray because it felt more engaging than feeling like your prayers were hitting the ceiling.

Did I admire it from a distance when older people at the time would talk about their midnight experiences sprinkled with fear and all the angel and ‘holy ghost fire’ encounters? Maybe, but it never lasted long. I probably wasn’t holy enough or praying enough either. And of course, too much talk about unanswered prayers weakened my efforts the more.

I remember feeling like, “Why couldn’t my desires just come to me? Why did I need to do all that drama for something that might not work? I want God to bless me but I don’t want pray.” Weh done, ma (laughs in ‘had I known’.)

However, as time passed, I realised that the problem was never really with prayer but my idea of what prayer was .

It’s like this: let’s imagine that we’re living in the Nigeria of our dreams, and NEPA, who is supposed to bring electricity supply, is actually doing their job, supplying electricity (you grab).

Now, say you rent or buy a house (na buy you go buy, in Jesus’ name, amen lol) and you move in, furnish the house, there’s running water and you’re so comfortable. But in all that comfort, there’s no light in your new home.

Now, you start to complain about your lack of electricity in house to your family, friends and neighbours. You can’t just get why NEPA can’t just give you light, because hello? you have a house, you’re supposed to have light. Plus, there’s even a power line right infront of your house so there shouldn’t be any excuses, right?

Thankfully, we all know that’s not how it goes. NEPA wants to give you light, if not there wouldn’t be a power line right outside our imaginary home and all the other infrastructure in place to provide electricity.

But they won’t just give you electricity for any of the reasons stated above. You’ll have electricity when you connect your house to the already available power lines and pay money so that you can finally have light in your home.

How does this apply to prayer?

As believers, Jesus Christ lived, died and rose from the grave to save us from our sins, to justify and glorify us. As a result, it is God’s will, as His children, for us:

1. To prosper and be in good health,

2. To have daily bread,

3. To have moneyyyy,

4. To be spiritual bosses on earth because He’s blessed with all heavenly blessings.

Then why isn’t this the reality of every believer? Why are some scrapping for bread, sick to the bones, distressed by demonic activities and living their lives with no value? Because God needs us to ask Him; to pray.

The bible says, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” – [2 Chronicles 7:14 KJV].

The same says, “Only ask, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, the whole earth as your possession.” – [Psalm 2:8 NLT].

We pray because prayer creates the pathway or opportunity for God to do all He wants to do on earth. (In Matthew 6:10, Jesus prayed for God’s desire to be done on earth like it is in heaven).

His word is filled with so many promises, all we have to do is ask God for what He said He would give us. The reason why God has help us achieve His desire in our lives is because He shed His blood for us so that we have the good of the land (na blood sturvs).

With all these assurances, we pray because we know that if God didn’t spare His own Son, His greatest love, just so that He could have us, is there anything more precious than Jesus that He cannot give it to us if we just ask Him? (Romans 8:31-32).

Prayer is made easy when we see that on God’s part, God has already done it; His answer will always remain, “…yea and amen,”. So when we pray, we pray knowing that God is not like our promise-and-fail-uncles. God promised so He will do it (“…has He said a thing and will He not do it?…” – Numbers 23:19).

This is how we pray with confidence; because our Heavenly Father is true to His fatherly role in our lives.

You’re probably thinking about the holiness and not-being-good-enough part. Well, the same sacrifice that causes answers to prayers also causes us to be righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21), holy and blameless (Colossians 1:22) in Christ Jesus FOREVER (Hebrews 10:10).

So, God as made you adequate and ‘sanctimonious’ enough to pray at all times.

No matter what you do, you’re not a sinner so your prayer can never be an abomination. In your time of weaknesses (and they will come), because of the sacrifice of Jesus, mercy speaks for you and forgiveness is part of your birthright. God can never undo what He did for you to become His child.

So question is, do you have faith in God? I pray this post fills you with faith to trust that whatever you’re praying for has already been answered. The more you study and hear the word and word-based content, faith will grow inside of you like never before.

What keeps us praying is the assurance that we will see results, and the more results we see, the more we pray because we are talking to our Father, who has given us more than anything we could ever ask or think. I’ve seen it firsthand: prayer works!

 I close with this: Mark 11:22-24, “Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.” (NLT)

God forever loves you. Talk to you soon!!!