I don’t know about you, but lately the enemy has been attacking my prayer life. My heart has been so grief-ridden and broken that I just have not been able to form the words to pray to my Heavenly Father. My mind remembers that God is good, my mind knows and revers His sovereignty, but for some reason my heart just felt so broken that I could not speak to Him. The strangest thing is that I was able to pray genuine, heartfelt prayers aloud in group settings, but unable to utter a single word in private attempts. That’s extremely ironic for someone who was intimidated by praying in front of others. Not being able to pray bothered my mind but my heart was completely unbothered.

I was not angry with God, I just felt no need to speak to Him. I continued to read and meditate on His word but I felt no need to have a conversation with Him. It’s like being in a room with a person, listening to what they’re saying, and gazing off when it’s you turn to speak. I would just stand in God’s presence with a blank face. God was asking me how I felt and I would just respond with a cartoon blank. God would tell me that He loves me and I would respond the cartoon blank. God would tell me that He’s working all things for my good, and I would just respond with a cartoon blank. My heart was broken and I just didn’t want to talk to God, the one Person Who could completely heal me, I didn’t have the strength, nor even want to garner the strength to have that very real conversation with Him.

But because God IS good and because He IS a good Father. He showed me that even when I chose not to speak to Him, He was always right there with me. He gave me a word for a friend. The word that He gave me showed me that God could still use me and that He still wanted to use me even in my state of weakness and brokenness. I confessed to my friend that I haven’t been able to pray and that friend encouraged me by saying that he would pray for my prayer life because my prayers were needed. It was in that moment that the light became brighter. It was in that moment that I remembered that my personal prayer life is of value. It was in that moment, as I stared blankly at case law, that I finally prayed that the Holy Spirit would interceded on my behalf because I don’t know nor have the words to pray for myself, and I needed help. And boy oh boy does God work fast! God began to wake me up at 3/4 am with a prayer in my belly. I would wake up and pray, for longer than I’ve probably ever prayed. God would place specific people and specific groups in my heart and I prayed vigorously for them.

It was not until after having two separate conversations that I realized that others Im are having the same exact experience. They are unable to pray. Some are unable to read God’s Word, some are unable to listen to/sing worship music, and some are unable to listen to preaching.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is an attack! The devil is trying to use this pandemic and our grief (grief of a person or life as we once knew it) to hinder our prayers. That scheming devil is trying to silence us! That low-down liar is trying to convince us that we are far from our Father. That hater is trying to ruin our relationship with our Heavenly Father because God doesn’t want a relationship with him! That conniving snake knows that the effectual prayer of the righteous availeth much so he is trying to hinder our prayer in attempt to wreak havoc on us as individuals, on our families, and on our communities! That territorial demon and his minions are trying to claim territory that belongs to God! In my Randy voice, “it’s a ‘no’ from me dawg!”

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We are Christian Warriors! Prayer is of extreme importance and the devil would like us to believe otherwise. The devil wants us to be silent. But no, we must rise up and pray. There are chains to be broken! “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”‭‭ Luke‬ ‭4:18-19‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Warriors, it’s time for another challenge!Step 1: pray that God will help you to pray again. Pray that you would once again want to be in His presence.
sample prayer: Father God, I humbly come before You thanking You for loving me and always being there for me. Thank You for pursuing me even when I don’t respond to your beckoning. God, please forgive me. God, please help me! Have your Holy Spirit intercede on my behalf because I have forgotten how to speak to You. I have forgotten how to be present in Your presence. Help me, Father. In Jesus’s name I pray, amen.

Step 2: organize a socially distanced prayer walk with your family, friends, neighbors, and/or church.
sample instructions: pre-walk (a) choose a guiding scripture for your prayer walk; (b) write down some topics and correlating scriptures to bring on the walk; (c) have a few songs written down; pray for covering over all participants. during walk (a) open up in prayer; (b) explain format to attendees; (c) sing and walk; (d) make periodic stops (e.g. at corners, in front of businesses) and pray out loud; and (e) close in prayer. post-walk pray for covering and the spiritual cups of all of the participants will be refilled. *remember to follow the applicable social distancing rules*

Prayer warriors, let’s reclaim our prayer time!

Song: War Cry by Queen Naija