I believe most, if not all, believers in Christ have experienced what you are experiencing. I have been saved for nearly 48 years and I still have times where prayer “seems like a daily chore.” This should not be the case, and when I am going through a period like this, I find myself taking a good hard look at WHY this is the case. Here are a few conclusions I have reached, and I hope this will be helpful to you.

1) I have become INDEPENDENT of my heavenly Father. By this I mean I think I can handle trials and make decisions on my own. When this happens, it is indeed a chore to kneel to pray for in my heart of hearts I do not feel the “need to pray.” Thankfully the Lord loves me (us) too much to allow this state of independency to continue. He will normally bring a very deep trial into my life to make me see how very weak I am and that only through “faithful dependence on Him” will I be able to handle trials and make godly decisions. In Hebrews 4:16 we read, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” This, dear friend, is the believer’s source of strength! The Lord knows we need His “mercy and grace to help in time of need.” If we find ourselves neglecting the Throne of Grace (or finding it a chore to go there) we must admit we have become independent and that we are, in and of ourselves, weak and unable to meet the challenges of life without His mercy and grace enabling us to do so.

2) I have become INDIFFERENT to the Lord’s things and am seeking the things of this world. In James 4:3 we read, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” When my heart and mind become detached from “the things that are above” (see Colossians 3:1-2) and become fixated on “the things that are below” (earthly possessions, pleasures, or popularity from the people around me), this mindset will be revealed in what I pray for. When my prayers go unanswered, I realize that “I was asking amiss” and I then examine myself and realize that my MOTIVES and my REQUESTS were not for the glory God and the blessing of others, but for purely selfish interests. Until I do judge myself, prayer will indeed become mundane.

3) I have become INSENSITIVE to the Lord’s love for me. I know, in my HEAD, that the Lord loved me enough to lay down His life for me and that He continues to show His love to Me in many ways, but my HEART has lost sight of this unbelievable and everlasting love. Again, the world has come into my heart in one way or another and it has taken the place that Christ alone deserves. Scripture commands the believer to “LOVE the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:20). Scripture exhorts the believer, “DO NOT LOVE the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world” (1 John 2:15-16). We cannot love our heavenly Father and the world at the same time! Our hearts will be focused on one or the other. And if my heart is “filled with the world” prayer will become a drudgery.

These are three things that will prevent you from coming to the Throne of Grace with a real desire to have fellowship with God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I would encourage you “examine yourself” considering what we have seen and see if one or more of these things have robbed you of your desire to pray. Judge them in God’s presence! He knows what you are going through and if you are a true believer in Christ God is your Father and He wants you have fellowship with you at the Throne of Grace and to give you “help and mercy in time of need.” I will close with a prayer of David that I have often prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24).  (DO)  (639.1)