5 Reasons People Don’t Pray (Updated)

As I travel I find a lot of Christians who don’t pray. It is not that they don’t think that they “should” pray it is just that for various reasons they don’t. Just realizing what the reasons are can make a big difference in turning it around. Here are some of them with some thoughts to tackle it.

We forget

I know how it goes. We get up and are feeling behind so we jump out of bed, get ready and help get the family ready for the day. We hurry out the door and head to our destinations. When we get to work or school we dive right in to the day’s activities. By the time we look up from our meetings and email the day is done. We hurry home get dinner ready and then run off to evening activities or just want to vegetate. Before we know it the day is over. We do this for 5 days, have a fun day on Saturday and end up in our regular seat on Sunday realizing we don’t know God any better.

2. Think it is boring

When people think about prayer they don’t often see it correctly. They do not see it as a planning session with the God of the universe. It is easy to not picture it as opening the door to enter the most powerful place in the universe. It is kind of like opening the wardrobe door and entering into Narnia. The Bible is full of stories of simple moments that people had with God that were revolution moments for their lives and those around them.

3. Intimidated

It is easy to get intimidated when you listen to other people pray. I lead a ministry on prayer and sometimes hear other people pray and am tempted to be intimidated. But let other people talk to God the way that they talk to God and build your own friendship with God.

4. Don’t see the difference it makes

We sometimes miss that massive difference that our prayer makes. Ordinary people pray and families, neighborhoods, cities, countries and the world are changed. Prayer is actually one of the more powerful things that we can ever do.

Prayer is actually one of the more powerful things that we can ever do.

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5. Just feel guilty about not praying enough

Even when we read something like this we can hear a little voice in our head saying, “You loser, you don’t pray enough.” But that is just a lie of the enemy trying to get you to be discouraged and not pray. Little prayer is better than no prayer. The next step is better than no step. Enjoy the moments you have with God and I can pretty much guarantee it will grow.

BTW-I wrote the e-book, “Your Meeting With God” to tackle these struggle a little deeper. You can get it for free by signing up for our emails.

The Power of Ordinary People Who Pray

Too often as I travel around to churches I find Christians who think that prayer is just for super Christians. This thought leaves us missing out on an army of people that we need praying. Here is an encouragement if you feel like one of those people. (Thanks to my daughter for her cameo on this video.)

God wants to use ordinary people who will pray!

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5 Surprising Results of Not Praying

These things may be surprising but they are each a result of not building your prayer life:

1. You will not appear as smart.

James says that if we lack wisdom we should ask God for wisdom and He will give it. The reverse of that is that if we don’t ask for wisdom we may not get the insight we need. Are we not getting the benefits of asking for wisdom?

2. You have to overcome more temptation than needed.

This may seem surprising, but it seems clear from Jesus’ teaching on prayer. He encourages his disciples to pray, “Lead us not into temptation.” This would imply that if we don’t pray that we may face more temptation than if we had. I think I will pass on unneeded temptation, thank you very much!

3. You have less of the things that you need in life.

With the same teaching on prayer about temptation Jesus teaches them to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” As Mark Batterson says, “The greatest tragedies in life are the prayers that go unanswered because they go unasked.” We shouldn’t miss out by not asking.

4. Your life will be more boring.

Again this may be surprising but true prayer helps to prevent boredom in life. Part of the life of prayer is listening prayer. When we pray God promises, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.” (Psalms 32:8 NIV) I have found that when I listen He often sends me on an adventure that gets my heart pounding. What adventure in life will we miss by not giving Him that space?

5. God may seem further away.

It should be no surprise, but sometimes it is, that spending time in prayer makes us more aware of the presence of God. Henry Blackaby in his classic book Experiencing God says that, “True prayer does not lead to an encounter with God; it is an encounter with God.” How often has God seemed far away when He wouldn’t if I have pressed into a time of prayer?

This post is not to make you feel guilty, but rather encourage you to take advantage of turning each of these negatives around by building your prayer life.

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