Why I Quit Praying
Last week we practiced a constant prayer of “O God…”. As I found out, the ellipses in “O God…” have many meanings.
“O God…
Help… I can’t… I/They need… Thank you… I can’t believe this happened (good or bad)... can you find me a parking spot at trader joes?... what should we do?... are you there?... I’m going to trust you with… please…
Last week was really a powerful practice for me. It changed the way that I handled everything from my parenting, to stress, to praying for others all day long. I really loved this practice!
Part of the context of Praying without ceasing is the breathing in and breathing out the goodness of God. There are so many great commentaries and books on this practice. We’ll need to come back to this!
But the idea that I wanted to get to this week was how the idea of “Without ceasing” was also used for constant military attacks; over and over, bombardment. There is also a sense that when things don’t go our way and the answer isn’t what we want, then sometimes we simply quit praying.
Some things in life are really great to quit and others aren’t. Prayer is not one of those things! I quit praying for a few reasons. One is that I sometimes just don’t trust that God cares about these things. Another is when I simply lose heart. The quitting is just the outcome of my giving up. And my giving up is a result of my emotional fatigue, doubt, and fear of God not being there for me. So as to give Him the night off or a way out if things don’t go as I’ve asked.
Yet, over and over we are invited and even challenged to not quit, give up or give in even when we don’t see the answer or the logic. So this is what we are going to practice this week. Wars are rarely won by single attacks, but by an unceasing action. Same with the spiritual war realms. FEAR NOT...for God is with you and you are with Him. He is not only with you but He is for you!
This week choose something or a few things that you are going to pray unceasingly about. Just like last week, breath in and out praise no matter what. Leave the outcome to Him, but pray as if this is a battle in the greater war!