Over the last week, I have both defended prayer and had doubts about prayer. At the same time.

This dichotomy IS a normal part of the Christian experience. To know something is true, but experience something different. To be forced to choose between what you believe and what you see. It happens on a regular basis, and my normal response is that this is why it’s called, “faith.”

But when I doubt, or don’t understand, it creates a lack of desire to pray. After all, when something hurts, we aren’t always compelled to move toward it.

Even as someone who is passionately pro-prayer, who believes in and relies on it deeply, I sometimes struggle. But I have found that the very best way to move past the struggle is to sit down and pray anyway.

And how to pray when you don’t feel like it, are disappointed, struggling, or filled with doubt?

Try praying God’s Word. Start with a Psalm or a Proverb, or join our Patreon community in James this month, and read until something moves you. Then pray that verse or passage back to God. Thank Him for reminding your heart of truth, and ask Him to make that truth come alive in Your heart today.

I can’t promise that God will always answer your prayers, or mine, exactly the way we want. After all, yes, no, and wait, are all legitimate answers to prayer. But I can promise that God will be faithful to His, “living and active word,” that, “is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). This is action, and it will produce change.

Pray anyway.

💚 Brooke