Susan's Homeschool Blog

So many Christians give excuses for not praying. They think that they are too busy, that their prayers won’t change anything, or that God doesn’t command us to pray. They don’t realize that they are walking in disobedience to God, and that they will not walk in victory over sin unless they are people of prayer.

My women’s prayer Bible study brainstormed a list of reasons why people don’t pray. After each reason, I debunk each of these excuses, and giving true reasons that you should pray. Afterwards I give you an audio workshop on prayer, giving examples and bringing to life how we are to avoid excuses in our lives.

Excuses for Not Praying

1. Not enough time. Rebuttal: God gives our time back and helps us to prioritize what is truly important. God energizes us to accomplish what we need to do.
2. Mind wanders aimlessly. Rebuttal: Take control over your mind. You don’t have to be ruled by aimless thoughts. Praying out loud or writing down a stray thought can help to keep your mind focused.
3. Apathy, not caring about people. Rebuttal: Praying causes you to love others, so pray anyway, and the love will come. Ask God to help you care. God will change your heart if you ask Him.
4. Selfishness, obsessed with our own lives. Rebuttal: Repent of the sin of selfishness.
5. Fear of having sin exposed. Rebuttal: You must have your sin exposed and confessed for God to get rid of it, to have a real relationship with God. God will not hear our prayers when we are walking in overt sin. (Psalm 66:18)
6. Angry at God. Rebuttal: If you are angry at God for allowing your child to die or allowing you to go through other horrendous pain, be honest with God, and ask Him to remove your rage, and He will. God is not out to harm you, but to draw you closer to Himself. (Jeremiah 29:11)
7. Guilt. Rebuttal: Learn the difference between true guilt and false guilt. True guilt is from something specific you haven’t repented of yet. False guilt is a general feeling of defeat from the enemy.
8. God is silent; He is not answering my prayers. Rebuttal: Maybe God is answering in a different way than you expected.
9. Belief that it doesn’t change things. Rebuttal: Repent of not believing God. James 1:6-8 says a double-minded man gets nothing. Ask God for more faith to believe that He is powerful enough (and loves you enough) to answer your prayers.
10. Laziness, too much of a burden. Rebuttal: Repent of the sin of laziness.
11. Boredom. Rebuttal: Wow… you’re talking with the Creator of the universe, the All-Powerful, and you are bored? Ask God to reveal Himself to you, and you will never be the same. Get to know Him through Scripture, and you will be amazed by Him!
12. Improper understanding of God as Father. Rebuttal: Unconsciously we relate to God the Father with the same patterns that we saw in our earthly fathers. If your earthly father was distant, you feel distant. If your earthly father was abusive, you think God is out to get you. If your earthly father was hard to please, you always feel like you have to perform for God. Get to know God for who He is through Scripture.
13. Tired, exhaustion. Rebuttal: God gives inward strength. Are we spending our strength on things that don’t matter for eternity?

Here is the audio workshop, where I explain how to overcome each of these excuses:

• Excuses for Not Praying

To keep up with prayer posts, here is my Prayer Facebook Page.

Do you wonder how to hear God’s voice? How do you differentiate between the voice of God and the voice of the enemy, our flesh, or even our own thoughts? God often speaks through Scripture. But guess what? Satan also uses Scripture to rationalize sin in our lives. Just think of how Satan tried to get Jesus to sin. He tempted Jesus through quoting Scripture. This sends shivers down my spine.

The voice of God is not audible, but it’s a clear impression that is similar to your own thoughts. This is why people often confuse God’s voice with their own thoughts or words from the enemy. After teaching the session on How to Hear God’s Voice at the prayer Bible study in my home, many women asked for a chart that would help them to distinguish the voice of God from the voice of our flesh or the enemy. First I will list what God’s voice is like, and then I will list what the enemy’s voice is like. At the end, I will give you a downloadable PDF for you to print out, to help you visually see the differences.

God’s Voice

• Selfless
• Doesn’t contradict Scripture
• Quiet and confident; not forceful
• Personal
• Often the opposite of what you expected
• Leads gently; doesn’t push
• Focused on the present, on what you should do today
• Peace results when obeyed
• Sometimes seems impossible, but God empowers you to do it

The Enemy’s Voice / The Flesh

• Uses logic and reasoning to persuade you to do it
• Self gain (selfish)
• Sometimes based on emotion
• Urgent
• Forceful; gives orders
• Works with what we pre-suppose
• Motivated by fear of what other people think (or other fear)
• Focused on the past (to condemn us) or on the future (to worry us)
• No peace; tumult

Next time you wonder whether your thoughts are from God or from the enemy, examine your thoughts to see which side of the chart you’re on:

• God’s Voice Chart

If you missed the audio workshop “How to Hear God’s Voice,” you can download it here. Be sure to “like” the Facebook Prayer Page (Becoming a Prayer Warrior: A Personal Journey) to not miss a single session on how to have a deeper prayer life. (Did you miss the first prayer workshop “The Beginning of a Prayer Warrior”? You can download it here.)

“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”  John 15:5 NASB

I am a branch connected to Christ, and the Holy Spirit flows through me like sap, energizing me to produce fruit. As a branch, I am not the root; I am completely dependent upon Christ to draw strength. All water and nutrients come through the roots, so if I do not allow the Holy Spirit to control me and pump me with fresh nutrients each day from His Word, I will shrivel up and die. Jesus says, “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.” (John 15:6) What I’m doing with my life is worthless if I am not connected to the Vine.

The only reason I am allowed to share in the life of the Vine is to produce fruit.

Bearing fruit (glorifying God in our actions, being sanctified, and becoming more like Christ) is what we’re saved for. Jesus says: “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” If we are true disciples we will bear fruit. (James 2:17)

You bear fruit not for yourself, but for your owner. The Father owns the vine and prunes the branches to produce more fruit. Anything that is not needful for fruit-bearing must be lopped off. Better fruit results when the vine is tended to by the owner. The branch is more beautiful, fruitful, and healthy.

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” (John 15:7) We have incredible power for answered prayer if our will is yielded to God, because He grants us the desires of our hearts. “Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4) That’s because your will and God’s will are the same. It’s aligning your heart to God’s heart. And then you are one. This is why your prayers are answered. God changes your desire and then grants you that desire because you yielded.

“The vine provides the sap, the life, and the strength. The branch waits, rests, receives, and bears the fruit.” -Andrew Murray in The True Vine: Meditations

“Abiding fully means praying much,” says Andrew Murray. We will care about the souls of others and be given up to the work of God when we are abiding. As a result, we will be people of prayer.

Andrew Murray goes on to say: “The branch is not only one with the vine, but with all its other branches.”  The sap running through the vine is the love of God. When you are connected, you will abide in that love. People that do not love do not know God. God is love. The biggest difference in the life of a believer after salvation is the ability to love. Do not hate your brother.

“These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” (John 15:11) Andrew Murray says: “As long as our joy is not full, it is a sign that we do not yet know our heavenly vine correctly.”

Abiding in the Vine will give you power in prayer as well as incredible joy, and you will bear fruit that is pleasing to the Father.