The evils of hell will do whatever they can to keep us from praying. The devil will resort to telling lies to stop us from praying. He uses misinformation, pleasure, and laziness to stop us from praying.
He uses busy schedules, false teachers, and television to keep us from praying. He’s also been known to use truth. As strange as it seems, the devil doesn’t hesitate to speak the truth if he thinks it’ll convince us that we shouldn’t pray. Here are some statements that the devil will use to stop us from praying.
“You’re not worthy.”
How many times have we said this statement to ourselves? Fortunately, that’s not the point. Psalm 130:3 reminds us that no one would ever stand if the Lord marked injustices. God isn’t dealing with perfect people. Everyone has sinned, and no one is righteous, as we’re told in Romans 3:10. There’s an old hymn that says, “Christ receiveth sinful men, even me with all my sin.” So being unworthy isn’t an excuse. Psalm 103:14 tells us that God knows our frame and is mindful that all we are is dust. He created us to be humble and has no illusions about us. When we sin, we’re the only ones that are surprised.
“God knows what you need already.”
Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:8 that God knows what we need before we make any request to Him. Then, He proceeds to give us the Lord’s Prayer. Realizing God knows what you want before you pray shouldn’t stop you from praying. It should motivate us to keep praying.
“You’re weak.”
We may be weak, but there’s good news. In 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, the Lord tells us that His grace is enough for us and His strength is perfectly made for our weakness. So being weak isn’t an excuse to stop praying. If anything, it should make us pray more.
“Your faith is too small.”
Everyone’s faith isn’t big enough. However, Jesus tells us that faith as small as a mustard seed can accomplish miracles in Luke 17:6. The question isn’t how great our faith is but whether we use it. In Mark 4:40, Jesus asked the panicked disciples why they were afraid and where their faith was. Having small faith isn’t an excuse to keep us from praying. When it comes to faith, a little goes a long way.
“You don’t know if God will answer your prayers.”
It’s true; when we take our requests to God in prayer, we don’t know if He’ll answer them. We may not be all-wise, but He is. It may feel like you see through a glass darkly and pray just that poorly. However, in the end, we want His will to be done, not ours. We should happily send up our prayers and leave answering them to God. However, what we shouldn’t do is announce that God must or will grant our prayers since His integrity is at stake. Psalm 115:3 reminds us that God is in the heavens and does what He pleases. That’s what we should want, knowing His fantastic character. So, being unsure of how He’ll answer our prayers isn’t a reason not to pray because you trust Him.
“What good will your prayers do?”
When a famous person requests the public’s prayers, you may feel like, “They have millions of people praying for them. What good will my one prayer do?” However, think about it this way. Do you know anyone that’s two or three people? What about a crowd? Anyone praying is one person praying. Everything that happens by prayer happens because one person is praying. So being one person praying isn’t an excuse not to pray. If we couldn’t count on one person praying, no one would.
“You’re unsure of how to pray.”
That’s typically the case. Luckily, we have Romans 8:26, which tells us that the Holy Spirit will help us when we’re weak. We don’t know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit will step in on our behalf when we don’t have the words. Since God takes our meager attempts at prayer and turns them into something powerful, our not knowing how to pray isn’t an excuse. Believers take satisfaction in knowing that the Spirit and Jesus will step in for us, which is comforting.
“Sins block your prayers.”
We know that sin can block our prayers because we read it in Isaiah 59:2. This verse says that our sins separate us from God, and they’ve hidden His face from us. However, John 1:9 gives us a pleasant reminder that if we confess our sins, He will forgive us and cleanse us of our sins because He is faithful. There’s no excuse for us to go one more minute with sins tying us down and blocking our prayers.
In Matthew 22:29, Jesus told the skeptical Sadducees that they made two mistakes, the same blunders that many non-praying “disciples” of Jesus make. Their first mistake was not knowing the Bible, and the second was not knowing God’s power. If we knew the Bible, we would know how to answer the enemy’s attacks. Also, if we trusted God, we would believe the Bible and start praying immediately. That being said, no excuse is good enough to stop you from praying. Nothing tells the tale of our faith like praying.
The devil will do whatever it takes to keep us from praying. He creates problems in our minds that aren’t there, creating narratives that we believe to be true. If we stop praying, we only give in to what the devil wants. However, the way we prevent the devil’s thoughts and blasphemous statements from entering our minds is to keep praying. When we continue to take our issues to God in prayer, we show that we trust Him and His word, not the devil. We should trust the Lord because He’s our heavenly father, constantly watching us to ensure we’re okay. He’ll never lead us astray, so we should look to Him, not the devil.
