If you find prayer to be draining and at times a disappointing activity, you may be suffering from a condition known as prayer fatigue. While not a real medical condition, years of speaking and answering questions from a live audience has helped nationally recognized prayer leader Jennifer Kennedy Dean discover it is a real spiritual condition. Prayer Fatigue takes a look at each of the 10 symptoms of this spiritual disease and offers practical and scriptural remedies to revitalize your prayer life. AMAZON
This has some interesting insights to some different ways of incorporating prayer into a person's daily life. With the thought of following the Bible verse that says to pray without ceasing. But these are ways to be more in contact with God without wearing yourself out.
There were some pretty good illustrations given that were easy to relate to. Incorporating a place for the presence of God into every part of your day. Developing more intimacy, without trying to have all the answers. Making it more of a relationship, not an activity or performance. There is plenty of scripture and some hands-on challenges and things to examine in your life. There are many good suggestions that I wish I had heard of when I first started out in my walk with God. I just have to share a few of the things that really stood out to me in this book:
Some really good points:
When you feel that you role is to give God specific instructions to follow then you will often be at a loss.
Prayer is not a way to get God to do what you think should be done. It is the way to conduct the power and wisdom of God into the circumstances of earth.
To pray is nothing more involved than to let Jesus into our needs. To pray is to give Jesus permission to employ His power to alleviate our distress. To bring Gory the name of Jesus in the midst of our needs.
Here are some Questions that got my attention:
Do you feel like God is grading you and your prayers?
(The actual Challenge was "Feeling that God is grading you in prayer and you are passing). I felt that the first question, the way I wrote it was really a good one, all on its own. Made me think.
Do you feel like you are imposing on God, that He might not want to be bothered by our little lives?
Do you feel like you have to do a certain ritual in order to get God's attention before you pray?
Are you feeling so bruised and broken that you don't have the will to participate in anything that requires engagement?
In the midst of deep pain, the author didn't try to participate but just sat. Still being aware of His presence but just sitting. And then slowly building enough strength over time to reach out to God as He had never stopped reaching towards her. He held onto her when she couldn't hold onto Him What a precious picture, for all of us.
I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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