Do you ever find prayer difficult? I don’t mean because you are angry with God or doubting your faith, but just ordinary prayer. One day it’s easy and another it’s really tough. I do.
I’ve also nearly always found it hard to pray. I don’t mean those quick prayers that you fire off in the hopes of getting something or just because something amazing has happened and yo want to share that with God – I mean the time when you settle down and pause to spend some time with God. What is really strange is that if I persevere then the praying gets easier and I usually find that in the end I have enjoyed myself as well as doing something meaningful. You would think that something I know I will enjoy would be something that would be easy to start but for me it doesn’t seem that way – at least not often.
In the past I’ve used all kinds of methods to help. I have found that discipline and a liturgy to use are both very helpful. I think there is no mistake that the more traditional churches developed such things as liturgies because they do help – the problems come when liturgy becomes the only way.
So I say to myself, as much as to anyone who reads this , that you need to persevere in prayer – it really is worth the effort.