Abandoning prayer for what I’m most in need of is a common thing.  It’s when I have concluded that God can’t, or won’t, do anything for me.

I’m amazed at most every prayer mapping retreat how people answer a question I ask before our last session.  “What are you going to write a prayer map for when you leave here?” Most give this answer.  “What I really need from God is something I’m not willing to invest the time in. I’ve prayed for so long about a certain issue and nothing has happened. I’m going to create a prayer map for something less, something safer.”  I never leave that conversation without encouraging them to prayer map their deepest needs.

When an addiction spans 15 years, when infertility enters the second decade of a marriage, when a wayward child hasn’t called home in many years, when depression has become a way of life, when financial struggle feels normal, when a family experiences a seemingly irreparable breech, these are the things that cause us to lose faith. What we really need to pray for, we don’t pray for.

The Holy Spirit speaks to us constantly, wooing us to believe, wooing us to hope in Him again. He is the One who does the impossible as He rewards the one who perseveres in prayer, either with specific answered prayer, or an unexpected surprise of deeper intimacy with Jesus and the joy that results.

At this moment, the embers of faith are stirring in someone reading this. Is it you? Tears of relief are in your eyes as you realize that the deep discouragement that comes from resignation no longer needs to be your friend. You can be fully alive to God, fully alive to faith, once again! As you and I look at the sad themes of our lives, are we numbed out to the point of feeling nothing? That is probably the very area where prayers of faith need to find a home on paper.

I infuse my unbelief with your hope-giving Word. Give me the grace to dig in and pray expectantly. Amen