Flat prayers

Do you ever pray and feel like the words don’t flow?

Have you ever felt muted? Like your mouth is moving, but the words are silent? Or like your prayers fall flat? 

My family loves to drink la croix or bubbly or other carbonated water beverages. 

They are crisp and refreshing, zero calories (win win!!)

Trials can cause a shift in our prayers.

I have been gutted through trials and I can get on my knees and feel flooded with peace. 

I have had moments of prayer with a girlfriend and the prayer flows and they seamlessly flow to God. 

These prayers are guttural, raw and it is as though the Holy Spirit put His stamp on it. 

But….

There are other times I feel my prayers have gone flat.

Flat, flat, flat…. 

Like a drink that was left over night and the fizz is gone.

 I share this because I am certain I am not the only one.

I love to pray scripture. When we pray God’s Word we are reminding God (and ourselves) of His promises and you can be certain praying a psalm is a beautiful encouraging way to pray! 

We groan

We sigh

We cry

We moan or murmur, or we might even scream…

These are all prayers and ways to express our heart to God. 

Just like a knife can get dull from overuse, our prayers can feel dull. 

I call them broken record prayers.

Here I am LORD, here is my request…

Here I go again with this same concern…

We might feel refreshed after unloading…. unpacking our heart to the LORD.

But other times we might not feel any different.

We might actually feel discouraged- again, flat prayers and we might feel as though God didn’t hear (A LIE!) 

We must press through, push forward and resist the temptation to stop praying. 

One thing that encourages me is asking someone to pray for me (and lift up my request) 

This reminds me of asking someone close to proof read a paper.  They have “fresh eyes” and they can see the situation with a new lens.

I love receiving prayer. This experience greatly honors God and refreshes me. Intercession takes the pressure off me to pray with the right words. I feel free to listen and not talk and simply enjoy the Holy Spirit praying through this friend. 

Lastly, God at times puts the pause on my praying for certain things and prompts me to “Just praise.”

Sometimes I am so close to the trouble, it can become almost an idol where I’m focused so much on the thorn and the problem and not truly focused on God’s character. 

I need to take a step back for a moment from my flat prayers and JUST PRAISE.

This blows my mind.

When we get to heaven, and all is accomplished as outlined in Revelation, there will be no more need for prayer -ONLY PRAISE. 

Praise continues on and on and will be our #1 job in heaven! 

This thrills me.

We get to come to the Lord and obtain mercy and help in time of need, YES, but if we lose sight of praise and worship, I fear we are treating God like Santa Claus and not Yahweh of Hosts/El Shaddai, the GREAT I AM, the King of Kings and LORD of Lords.

Jesus you are worthy! 

You said ask seek knock and we will not stop interceding until our last breathe.

Sometimes Lord, my prayers feel flat, but I reject my feelings and trust you Abba Father. You love to hear from your children! 

Please LORD teach us to worship! 

Take us back to the Cross.

May we stand in awe of you all over again!  May we remember, when our prayers fall flat, you live to make intercession for us and your prayer life Jesus is PERFECT!  

Hallelujah Amen!