Spiritual discipline advice

Man I am finding it difficult to pray. I don't know what is up but it's like a wall. I want to pray but it's ... Well hard to describe.

What is the problem....the bible states clearly to come BOLDLY to or before the throne of GRACE to obtain mercy and help in time of need...If you know JESUS as your savior brother, do not be afraid to pray...the Heavenly Father loves you more than you love your children if you have any and we are not to fear.....sure he chastens us when we are rebellious, but he delights in MERCY and his MERCY endures FOREVER......

What are you praying for? If you prayers are for others in need then that should be as natural as breathing, but if your prayers are for yourself then that is like holding your breath so yeah it will be difficult.

Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
Matt 6:8

All day long you think to yourself, you make decisions, you form opinions. Think to God instead, make decisions with Him, ask what His opinion is. In this way you will pray all day long everyday without ceasing. Of course you'll also have your more formal prayers- praying before you eat, giving God compliments, asking Him to help you and others. But there are many forms of prayer- even without words. "We don't know what we ought to pray, but the Spirit Himself inerceeds on our behalf with groans that words cannot express." The important thing is that you are having constant fellowship with God.

But to help with your formal prayers, you can use this fill in the blank. Maybe set a timer everyday at a good time to be alone...

Address God
Give God a compliment
Tell Him why you need Him
Tell Him why others need Him
Ask Him to forgive you
Ask Him to help you forgive others
Tell Him at least one thing you are thankful to Him for
Whether you say it or not, be mindful that the only way you or your prayers reach the Father is through the Son.
Say "amen" which means you agree that your prayer matches God's will- therefore let it be indeed!

Thanks for the input. I will keep these advices in mind.

Maybe God is trying to tell YOU something. My most rewarding prayer sessions are when I let God talk and I listen.

Has prayer become a regimented thing that you feel you have to do for a certain amount of time each day?

Or is prayer something you just do when you feel that there is a need to do so?

Is prayer an act of devotion to you?

Is prayer just having a talk with God?

What is prayer to you?

How does that work? I've always wanted to hear God's voice.

And please people dont tell me to read the bible okay. I have read the bible and read it a ton, the bible is NOT God talking to me. Its me reading a book, lets get that out of the way.

For me right now there is a time of praise and then as I start to appraoch supplication and tell God my needs and the things I would like to see and ask him for other people, the pray time is just over its just like walking up to a wall and not being able to continue. It's wierd because through put the day I can worship and praise and be moved to tears by the word of God or by the works of his people. I can even minister to people and share the word and comfort people with the word and with Goddly assistance and advice. If I sin or more rather when I sin I can confess.

Would it help to try to think about what prayer is and isn’t.

For example God is not a form of Santa Clause.
He is real, Almighty God.

I use to get confused about the verses which say God knows what we
need before we ask. I thought well why bother, and if He knows what I
need why does He just not give me it.

Then I realised that when we pray, it gives permission for God to act
on our behalf. He won’t force Himself onto us. When we pray we are declaring
our faith and acknowledging that we need and put our hope and trust
in God.

God is also not distant, He is with us wherever we go.
This means we can talk to God at any time anywhere. Think of how it would
feel if you never spoke to those closest to, children, spouse, parents etc.
But we do that to God when we don’t talk to Him.


God always wants what is best for us, so sometimes just like parents He has to
say no. That can put people off too as they think God doesn’t answer so He doesn’t
listen. But you would not let a child have things that are harmful to them, even if
they really want them.


If a person doesn’t pray, can’t find the time, forgets etc. It probably means that
they do not enjoy a close relationship with God. Because the closer you are
to God, the more you want to spend time with Him. It becomes a joy,
something to look forward to.

A good friend and brother in Christ preaches in prisons all the time and those prisoners go through all the shrinks, all the stuff, all the medication, they go through everything. He has the ones stand up there that got the victory and none of them mention one thing about how the system works or the drugs help. Everyone says, "I just kept going to the side of my bed begging God for mercy. Oh God! You know I'm a mess. Please, why aren't You helping me? Oh God! Please help me! I'm trusting you, I'm trusting you!" Then they go to sleep for a little while, wake up, and all of a sudden the urge is gone and their mind is not even thinking about it.

The trick of the devil is to get you to think it is a one time shot. And it's not. Why? It may be that we need to beg God 100 times a day. It is because you have a weakness in your armor. Or if you have a fort, you have a weak area in the wall--something for the devil to keep working on. And it's up to us to reinforce the wall. And we do that by reading and praying and doing what God tells us to do.

The symptom that needs to be addressed is, 'did you read your Bible today?' If all you can pray is "Jesus help me, Jesus help me, Jesus help me!" then do that consistently until you feel Him and then just start talking to Him as you would a friend. Don't get hung up on some ecclesiastical pattern for your prayers.

I find a quiet spot. Generally it’s early before anyone else is awake. I clear my mind and ask Him to teach me something. Then my mind fills with thoughts that aren’t mine and things start to make sense.

Ah okay. So its thoughts not an audible voice? That makes sense.

Read Psalm 91 with your heard and your mind before you get started. God bless you!

Hey! Locopony... PTL!
Babes in Christ are both those who are newly born again and those who were at the least, mature and on the way to being teachers; and then have need of being taught, all over again, the first principals of the oracles of God. Which are: repentance from dead works, faith toward God, the doctrine of baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. The resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment refers to our burden for the lost. Laying on of hands deals with body ministry of the church and its ministries. Baptisms, refers to one-time events, such as water and when we all were by one Spirit baptized into one body, or the baptism of repentance from John the Baptist. Faith is given to us by Jesus when we first believed and is to be kept unto the end. That leaves repentance, which when we stumble back into sin is what becomes neglected and the heart becomes hardened and we find ourselves to be spiritual babes all over again, sadly. So once we've been mature and stumble into sin or are babes in Christ who have yet to be transformed by the renewing of their minds. The Holy Spirit stops feeding that person strong meat which is for the mature, but rather them on the milk of the word of righteousness until by reason of use they've had their senses exercised to discern good and evil. If the milk of the word of righteousness ministers transformation into the image of Jesus, imagine what the Holy Spirit might accomplish with the strong-meat of the word which is reserved for the mature.
This process of ministering righteousness through devotions in the scripture is the power of the New Covenant, where the Lord declares, I will make a new covenant with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will write my commandments upon the table of their hearts and minds. The Holy Spirit uses the scripture we put into our minds and uses them, here a little, and there a little to renew our consciences to see sin more and more as the Lord himself does. Those things that we once delighted in or have given ourselves to again in a stumble; become points of conviction and as we continue in our devotions in the word. The Holy Spirit will even use the knowledge of how guilty we'll know we're going to feel by a conscience that is continually being renewed. Just and example: 3 chapters a day equals 30 fold; 10 chapters a day equals 60 fold; and 20 chapters a day equals 100 fold of fruits.
Do the above, Locopony and then add to that: a short-list of prayer requests. Immediate family, friends, someone currently on your heart, your goals, asking the Lord to forgive them their sins and give them life, keep them safe, and show them afresh, Jesus lifted up in the power of his loving sacrifice. Pray over those on your shot-list, practice the Lord's word that what you ask, you'll receive. Treat each prayer request as a mustard seed of faith, that as you strive to believe; the Lord, who desires us to grow so so much, tries our faith that we might learn to persevere, being strong of faith.
Its the title of the topic that got me going...
Maranatha!

if you know your Lord and Master, then praying is just a natural conversation with your best Friend -
it's a free-flowing-natural-gift of Holy Love...

I think much of my problem is that I find myself in sin even though I do hate my stupid desire for sinful things. To me it makes no sense to commit a sin in almost cyclical fashion even being digusted by it and perplexed by how the idea of doing a thing that I find pointless and useless and absurd and to top it off disgusting and awful. Yet I still find myself engaged in this foolishness which serves no purpose other than to frustrate me

So bite the bullet and just speak. You have had to talk to other people before in life when you did not want to talk. That is what prayer is … a conversation... Only your flesh, false pride is in the way... I would start with humbling myself and repenting...

I also had an issue about praying. I got tired of praying the Lords prayer in my mind but not feeling it in my heart.
True prayer must come from the heart, and not recital.
I now prefer to groan within myself in supplication to the Lord (Romans 8:26).
My groaning is from my heart and true.

Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

YOU ARE A SAVED PERSON!!!! I am happy to hear G-d/ Holy Spirit convicts you of your sin; that shows how much He loves you! Paul talks out the sin that has easily been set aside. I have found this true, most sins have been in the past 28 years of Salvation. But there are some that seem to have a deep root. And those are the ones that make my flesh happy in the moment. But the good news there is DELIVERANCE IN THE LORD FOR THOSE TOO!!! I have been DELIVED from some and I mean DELIVERED... like dope and fornication. But I am still the queen of stop smoking, but that staying stooped keeps getting me. Now how I can go withdrawal from dope and never shoot-up again since 2004 is beyond me. Did you notice I got saved in 1991, saved for 28 years. ALWAYS SAVED SINCE 1991. That does not mean it has to take that long for other people.

There is hope! YOU WILL BE SAVED FROM THIS (what ever this is for you)! YOU SERVE THE LIVING G-D!!!!!!! HE SAVES!!! THAT IS WHAT HE DOES! He only has to Save ONCE for Salvation, but He is soooo G-d He KEEPS SAVING US FROM OURSELVES and EVERYTHING ELSE!!!!!!!