When Prayer Feels Hard | Teach Me How To Pray (Class 3)

Whether you're new to faith or you've been following Jesus for years, learning to pray changes everything. Hi, I'm Brie, and today we're talking about when prayer feels hard. I remember a story one time where I was driving in the car and it had been a few weeks since I had had some, what I call quiet time with God, like I hadn't had any intentional times of prayer in a few weeks. And I was driving and I'm talking to God and I said, I just don't feel like praying right now. Have you ever felt that way before? Have you ever felt like praying just seems too hard? Maybe you feel grief or disappointment. Maybe you're feeling some fear and that fear is weighing you down so much that prayer just feels hard. Or maybe you feel anxiety and you're so worried about what's going on that it doesn't feel right. It just feels hard to pray. Or maybe you're just really busy. For me, I have been busy for weeks and by the time I got to the car and finally said out loud, I just don't feel like praying. It was an honest declaration. It was an honest statement to God. And I remember talking to my friend about it and I told her, I said, I told God, I was like, I just don't feel like praying right now. And she said, Brie, do you know that when you said that sentence, you were already praying? But in that moment that you thought to yourself, saying out loud to God, I don't want to pray was not a prayer, was actually prayer. Prayer is one of those things that actually is supposed to feel light and easy. And even when we go through hard situations, something as simple as a tear, as a statement to God to say, I don't want to pray right now, or even just a groan can even be a prayer to God in our toughest of seasons.

Here's what you need to know. Everyone experiences hard seasons of prayer. Everybody. It doesn't matter how long someone has been saved, how long people have been praying or how poetic or theological their prayers sound when you hear them pray. Every person has seasons of life where you feel distant from God, where you're struggling to find the words to say to him, or you may be even wrestling with some type of disappointment or grief. Every person goes through this. As a matter of fact, in Ecclesiastics, it says there's a season for everything. Every part of our lives is seasonal. So there are seasons where it's just difficult to pray. Let me encourage you by saying this does not mean that you lack faith. Okay? It's a season. It's just a short stint of time where maybe prayer feels a little bit more difficult to you. Jesus tells us in the word that if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can move mountains. So maybe today your faith feels really, really small. It feels like it's the size of a mustard seed, just tiny. You could barely even see it and you definitely can't see it from a distance. Maybe that is all the faith you have today. Let me encourage you by saying that is more than enough. That type of faith, even as small as it feels, is enough to move mountains. What I believe is that when we're in a season where prayer feels hard, it's some of our most powerful prayers that we pray during that time. When prayer feels hard and you still say, God, I choose to trust you. When prayer feels hard, but you still go to God in prayer. When prayer feels hard and you actually cry your prayer to God, those are some of the

most powerful prayers that you can ever experience. One type of prayer that I love, especially during difficult seasons of life is called breath prayers. You just pray based on the cadence and the rhythm of your breath. So as I inhale, I'm saying in my mind a name of God or a person or character of God. So God, my father. As I exhale out, I'm saying what my need or my supplication is to him. I need you today. God, my father, I need you today. God, my father, I need you today. And so even in the toughest of times when you cannot seem to find the words to pray to God, use your breath as prayer to God. Breathe in the name of God, exhale out. What is it that you're requesting from him today? The Bible is full of honest prayers. This is a beautiful thing about all of this is that we are not alone. There are people laced throughout the entire Bible who prayed very honest prayers and very tough seasons of their life. We see Hannah who cried out in desperation when she could not get pregnant. She prayed so desperately that the prophet came to her and thought she was drunk. That's how desperate her prayers were. Elijah prayed to the point of exhaustion. He prayed loneliness where he didn't know if he even wanted to live any longer. Honest prayers. Elijah said. Then David, David lamented openly when he lost his son, literally tearing and ripping his clothes as he prayed and lamented to God. And even Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane prayed a prayer in anguish. It says that he prayed so desperately and he was so full of anguish that he sweated drops of blood. That's how hard, how honest his prayer was. God honors honest prayers. And one of the type of prayers that we could give to God is called lament. Now you may not have heard much about this. There is an entire book of Bible called Lamentations.

This means that you can bring your laments or your pain to God. Lament is a beautiful exchange where we bring our pain to God instead of keeping it away from him. When we welcome God into our grief, into our confusion and into our frustration. If you know a little bit about my story in July, 2024, we lost my husband and I lost our two week old son Ace. And I wear his name all the time with me because it really is a situation that was the hardest thing that I've ever experienced. And also the thing that I feel like brought me the closest to God because God met me in my grief. There were prayers for months that were just laments, just laments, just telling God how I wish it would have went, telling God all the different things that I had in store for Ace in his life, all the dreams and the plans that I had for him. I didn't hold anything back. The days where I was mad with God, I told God, I am mad at you. The days where I felt frustrated with how life was going, I told God, I feel frustrated with how life is going. Prayers of lament bring us closer to God because this is the thing. Jesus said, in this life, you're going to have problems. You're going to have troubles. You're going to have heartache. You're going to experience loss. You're going to grieve. You're going to be confused. You are going to have troubles, but do not fret because I will be with you. Even if God doesn't come, change the situation exactly as we want it to be changed. The most beautiful promise that he gives us is his witness, meaning he will be with us presently with you in your hardest seasons of life. I know that not just because that's what scripture tells us. I have lived that in my own life, seeing God be with me when I pray prayers that look like Hannah's, when I pray prayers that look like Elijah, when I pray prayers that look like David, when I pray those prayers, that is when God met me with his presence and the Holy Spirit as a comforter. This is the gracious thing about God. He says in this word that we can come boldly before the throne of grace and he will give us the grace. His grace is sufficient for whatever it is that we may be experiencing in life. One of the ways that he presents his grace to us is through the person of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has many different jobs as a counterpart of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. One of the things that the Holy Spirit does for us is he helps us pray. I love this because there are seasons in life where I don't have the words to say to the Lord. I don't know what to say, but the Holy Spirit steps in and intercedes or stands in the gap to help

us pray. In Romans 8, 26 through 27, it says, and the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. Beautiful. For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray for, but the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying. For the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God's own will. When the Holy Spirit prays on our behalf, he's not just praying prayers that we would pray. He's praying prayers that are in harmony with God's own will. So when your words fail, the Spirit intercedes. And oh, what I love about this scripture is it says God knows every person's heart. Do you know what that means? It's that he's not asking you to eloquently come to him and express prayer in some perfected way. What he's saying is, I know your heart, I know what you need, and I even know my will for your life. So even though your prayer feels unspoken, even though your prayer feels like it's just some tears right now, there were times in my life where my prayer was literally just help me. That was it. I had nothing else. It was help me, help me, please help me, help me. God understands prayers that are unspoken. unspoken, prayers that are even timid, prayers that are just repetitive over and over, help me, help me. He knows exactly what our hearts needs. The Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf. Sometimes a groan is a prayer. Sometimes a sigh is a prayer. Oftentimes, tears are prayers. The God who loves us so much, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, but also our gentle Father says, all your tears, I collect them. Those are prayers to God. One of the ancient practices, spiritual practices that have come throughout the centuries is a come Holy Spirit prayer.

And this is something that I would encourage you to do, especially in times where you don't know how to pray. You say, come Holy Spirit. That's it. Those three words, come Holy Spirit. He knows how to intercede on your behalf. Another way is that we believe here in the Spirit giving us the evidence or the benefit. We believe in the Spirit giving us the benefit of his presence by speaking in tongues, an unknown language, meaning nobody on earth knows what I'm saying, not even myself. And yet the Holy Spirit knows how to interpret and intercede on my behalf. All of that is available to you. Even if you didn't grow up with that expression or you don't know much about it, all of that is available to you because you know why? There are certain times in life, in certain seasons in life where we need that. We need the Holy Spirit to pray on our behalf. Today, I want to encourage you that when it is hard to pray, that's when your prayers matter most. Don't think it has to be some long drawn out prayer with a lot of words and scripture wrapped around it. That prayer can be come Holy Spirit. That prayer can be a breath prayer. That prayer can be a prayer of lament where you are just honest with God.

Today, we want to encourage you to take one step forward when it comes to praying when it's hard. Today, we want you to take some time, get quiet, get still, get in solitude by yourself and bring one honest struggle to God today without filtering it. No filters. Now, you filter for everybody all day, I'm sure, but with God, he wants our honest prayers. Bring that struggle to him today and allow him to meet you right there. Let me pray with you. Lord, we thank you so much that you are a God that's not intimidated by our hard seasons or when our faith feels small. You're not intimidated by the times that we feel like we don't know how to pray or it's difficult to pray or we're too busy to pray. Lord, you meet us right where we are. If today our prayers are just tears, you'll meet us there. If it's just groans, you'll meet us there. If today we're praying in an unknown language just because we don't know what to even say in our native language, you'll meet us right there. Thank you, God, for being a God that says you will never leave us nor forsake us no matter what life brings. We trust you, we believe in you. It's in the name of Jesus we pray, amen. We love you so much.

Go out and live a transformed life.