Last week was one of those weeks where I found myself forcing my prayers.  Like the rest of the world, I faced a full week of deadlines and a family to attend to.  On top of that I was also sick, so I didn’t feel much like praying.  I just wanted to feel better.  I thought getting things done would help me feel better, so I cut some corners and majored on efficiency instead of my Lord.  Like a college student who procrastinated all semester long, I found myself cramming prayers into my day just to say I did them.  As a result, my prayers really became a box to check not a God to encounter.  This obviously wasn’t the right choice, but God was gracious nonetheless.  In my quest for a higher efficient work week, God showed up and revealed my heart on the matter of prayer (or in my case the avoidance thereof).

I wasn’t doing anything really spiritual to get God’s attention, mind you.  I just had one of those “still small voice” moments where God got my attention in the midst of my busyness to remind me he wasn’t in it.  That’s when I stopped my work to reflect on the moment.  It didn’t take long before God gently pointed out three reasons why I was avoiding him in prayer (I’m sure there were more, but he was gracious to stop at three for the moment).

I will share all three of them with you, but not all at once.  I don’t mean to keep you in suspense, rather I want to give you one at a time in order that you and I might digest them together.  Also, I don’t want to just list the ways we avoid prayer.  I want to give us the space each week to do something about our avoidance.

Here is the first of three reasons why we avoid prayer:

I think we avoid prayer because we believe that God only wants something from us not for us.

Let’s face it, God is someone who demands a lot from us (remember Lev. 11:44 where God said “be holy because I am holy?”).  When we read passages like this, they tend to reinforce a false image of God as a stern father who doesn’t give his kids any slack.  This image demotivates us to pray because we know we fall short of the holy standard God has set out for us much of the time.  As a result, we can conclude falsely that if we approach God in prayer there is only a reprimand waiting for us on the other end.  Therefore, it’s best to keep our distance – especially if life is going well!

I think we avoid prayer because we believe that God only wants something from us not for us. -Scott Vermillion Share on X

But when we believe God only wants something from us, we fail to hear God’s true heart for us.  The truth is that God wants a great deal for us.  He longs to walk with us in prayer like Adam and Eve did in the cool evenings in Eden.  He wants to remove our sin as far as the east is from the west.  To be clear, God does want us to be holy, but we have to also hear that God has made a way for us to be holy.  It’s not our job to become holy on our own.  It’s God’s job to make us holy.  It’s our job to confess that Jesus’ life, death and resurrection make us holy.  It’s in the confession of our need for Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross that we can begin to see just how much God wants something for us.  However, if we only think God wants something from us, we won’t be spending too much time with him in prayer.  For instance, how many people do you want to spend time with who only want something from you?  Those are the people we avoid like the plague.  If our view of God is stunted with the belief that God only wants something from us, we will avoid God like the plague, too.

here is what you can do this week to change your avoidance of prayer into courage to pray:

Begin your prayers with an invitation from God.

You are never the initiator in prayer.  God is.  So why not intentionally let God begin the conversation by listening to his invitation in Isaiah 1:18-19.  If you have forgotten those words, let me refresh your memory.  God says to his people:

Is. 1:18     “Come now, let us reason together,”

says the LORD.

“Though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be as white as snow;

though they are red as crimson,

they shall be like wool.

19     If you are willing and obedient,

you will eat the best from the land; 

20 but if you resist and rebel,

you will be devoured by the sword.”

For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

God reveals his heart to us in the book of Isaiah.  He invites us to experience a transformation through our conversations with him.  If we are willing to approach God as we are, God is willing to transform us to look just like him.  Through these words in Isaiah, God is inviting us all to move from a sin stained life, to a holy covered life.  He will take our bruised and battered soul and heal our self-inflicted wounds.  If we are willing, God will give us his best, not the worst.  He wants to cover our sin with his holiness.  That’s a gift we shouldn’t overlook.

If we are willing to approach God as we are, God is willing to transform us to look just like him. Share on X

This transformation that God does in our hearts motivates me to pray.  I need God’s generous invitation in order to have the courage to come to him as I am with my crimson colored soul, in order to let him do his work of making me holy just as he is.

So this week, don’t avoid God thinking that he only wants something from you.  Begin your prayers with God’s invitation in Isaiah 1:18-19, so that you can hear how much God wants for you.

Q: How would this invitation from God in Is. 1:18-19 change the way you pray?