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| Bee in my backyard |
I set aside times to pray. If you are new at this I suggest praying 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week.
What if you don't feel like praying? Pray anyway. Choose to pray anyway because to pray is to engage in relationship with God. Think of it like this. I talk with Linda every day, multiple times. Whether or not I feel like talking with her is irrelevant, because we are married. Because I love her, I mostly feel like talking with her. But my communication with Linda is not proportionate to any feelings I have.
It is important to pray when you don't feel like it. The person who only prays when they feel like it is not a praying person any more than a person who practices the guitar only when they feel like it is a serious guitar student. We are not to allow feelings to determine whether or not we will actively stay in relationship with God. Henri Nouwen writes:
"Often we do not feel like praying and our minds are distracted. The lack of motivation and difficulty focusing make us think that our prayer time is useless and wasted time. Still, it is very important to remain faithful to these times and simply stick with our promise to be with God , even if nothing in our minds, hearts, or bodies wants to be there. Simple faithfulness in prayer gives the Spirit of God a real chance to work in us, to help us be renewed in God’s hands and be conformed to God’s will ." (Henri Nouwen, Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life, Kindle Locations 496-500)
A praying person is a faithful person. Choose to pray today. If you do, I expect feelings will come.
