How come I can't pray?

Question

How come I can't pray, when I try, I always feel as if nobody is listening. And it makes me feel sad, so I stoppred praying.
But how come others know or feel (in a way) that there is a God listening and I feel as if I'm talking to myself...

Answer 1

God is listening even if you are whispering. Go forth in prayer to the Father thru Christ and they will hear your every word. We all have times of doubt but we need to keep the faith and continue our prayers. Please don't give up.

Answer 2

All you need is faith.
Have faith in God, believe in him, and you'll feel the presence of Him.

Prayers are not all meant to be answered in a direct way as you've expected. Sometimes, all you need to do is to take a different stand, and perceive things in different perspectives. God is not just going to drop a bunch of money in front of you when you asked for money, getting a job, or being motivated to work hard may also be God's way of answering your prayer.

The relationship of you with God is also important. If your relationship with Him is close, you can feel Him. On the contrary, if you are far from Him, you won't be able to feel Him. In order to build up that relationship, invite God into your life which you have kept Him from getting involved. Think of Him as your invisible friend, who watches over you.

If this is what you are experiencing, pray to God for help, I am sure your prayer will be answered. =]

Answer 3

You find prayer useless for many reasons. Maybe because many of your prayers weren't answered. Maybe because you haven't had a dream like a prophet to bolster your faith and belief. Maybe because you might be young and are being affected by the propaganda of the so called modern world that tends to disbelive all things spiritual. Maybe because you haven't had a life threatening experience where you might have had the opportunity to ask for help from a higher power than yourself. If you continue to believe in God, grow older and learn more, you will come to believe that there is a Grand Intelligence at work that has great plans for you, indeed, all of us. Don't be sad when you are in pain and the answers are not there instantly...all of us are being tested. See you in Heaven.

Answer 4

Starting in my earlier teen years I began noticing that god was not answering my prayers (even ones for help to do what Christianity says is god's will). As a result of that and other observations and extensive study (of the Bible, science, and of philosophical books by deists and atheists), I later stopped believing in Christianity, the biblical god, and any god whatsoever. I am not an ex-Christian (except in the sense of being an atheistic cultural Christian), an atheist, a philosophical naturalist, and a Secular Humanist. See my Yahoo Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Educators_and_Students_of_Naturalism/info for more information.

Answer 5

Many people experience spiritual dryness in prayer and the worst thing that you can do is to allow yourself to become dejected about it,this will inevitably cause great discouragement and prayer becomes a chore and even painful.
Sometimes we need to change our way of praying as saying the same prayers every day can become stale,there is really no right or wrong way to pray so the formula can be changed to enable us to avoid the desert of dryness.
The evil one too can oppress us at times and make us feel as if we are not worthy even to pray and that are prayers are of no use,we must always be on our guard against this because many have lost hope eventually and losing hope is very dangerous to our souls.
Honestly I assure you that God hears all prayers and rejoices in the faith that we place in Him by praying, for most of us there will be times when the feelgood factor is just not there and this is when we must persevere in humble trust and filial obedience, this is the mark of the Christian.
God calls you by your name and says`I love you` you are mine, know that I hold you in the very palm of My Hand, I love you and you are Mine`
We all need to be reminded of this truth at times as the world has a way of knocking us about like sand in a desert storm.
I think it would help if you chose simple prayer for awhile, you could pray the Our Father while really thinking about each line, and read a few Psalms that assure you of God`s love and care for you.
Whatever you do though do not get stressed about your lack of prayer but humbly submit yourself to the Holy Spirit Who prays in us and for us.

Answer 6

I don't like to speculate, but perhaps you can't pray because your heart is hardened because of unbelief? I've experienced this before. Many of us don't feel like praying sometimes, but this is the most important time to do so. God can, if we permit him, chip away at the hardness of our hearts.

May I offer you an experiment to try? You may find that it helps you. I pray that it does.

A. Hypothesis--

1. There are unseen realities--things not seen, but true.

2. "If [you] have faith [you] hope for things which are not seen, which are true", but you do not have a perfect knowledge of them. By "perfect knowledge" I mean knowledge gained through one's own experiences. The person who operates from a basis of faith is willing to accept a different kind of evidence than that gained through the senses. Paul taught that "faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). I promise that if you experiment upon the word of the Lord you will have special experiences of your own and thus come to a perfect knowledge of the goodness of the word of the Lord.

3. A person cannot at first be sure of the truth of unseen realities. He must begin with faith, and faith is not to have that perfect knowledge.

4. A particle of faith, even a desire to believe, if planted in the heart and nourished properly, can grow into knowledge of the unseen.

B. Experiment--

1. Compare the word of God to a seed.

2. Plant the seed in your heart, not just in your head.

3. Do not cast the seed out by unbelief or resist the Spirit of the Lord that accompanies it.

4. If the seed beging to swell within you and enlarges your soul and enlightens your understanding, it is good; if it does not, it is bad and should be cast away.

C. Conclusions--

1. If the seed begins to grow, faith in its goodness becomes dormant; you know the seed is good.

2. If the seed begins to grow, additional nourishment and care will cause the seed to become a tree that brings forth fruit.

3. If the seed of the tree is neglected, it will wither. This does not mean that the seed was not good. It means that your spiritual ground is barren and unproductive. In other words, the experiment did not fail; you failed the experiment, and you can not enjoy the fruit.

4. If the tree is nourished with diligence, patience, and continuing faith it will spring up "unto everlasting life" and enable you to "pluck the fruit thereof, which is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet, and which is white above all that is white, yea, and pure above all that is pure".

I've tried this experiment and I have to tell you that it has worked for me. I know that there is a God who listens to our prayers. We can communicate to him as any man or woman communicates with another person. It is personal...it is special. If you would like to talk more about this you may e-mail me. I copied a link into the source area leading to the scripture concerning the experiment above. It is in the Book of Mormon. Please don't let that discourage you from taking a look or from trying the experiment. I promise that if you try this experiment you will reap the rewards of your faith. I know I certainly have. God bless you.

Truly yours,

Arthur :)

Answer 7

There are probably times when you are actually praying, but do not realize it. Sometimes when we are at our lowest, and can do or say nothing but utter a sigh or groan, or say "Lord help me" we are actually praying. Many people think of prayer as a formal set of prewritten prayers, or if it's spontaneous prayer, a sort of semi-formal talk with God. But there are actually many forms of prayer. Quietly meditating on the mysteries of God and His awesomness is a form of meditative prayer. The Buddhists and yoga masters are not the only ones who use meditative and/or contemplative prayer or mysticism. Christians do this too. I do it every day in my own prayer life, as well as attend church, say the set prayers, etc.

Romans 8:26 says this about those times when words fail us when we try to pray, and don't seem to know how:

"So too the Holy Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance."

Romans 8:26 - The Amplified Bible

Know that God is *always* listening, and always answers in His timing. And as Jesus said, Our Father in heaven already knows what we need and what we are going to ask for before we even ask it.

He wants us to go ahead and ask Him anyway. And His Holy Spirit carries our imperfectly formed prayers up to Him, bearing us up in our weakness......

Answer 8

Hello first lets talk about conditions to answered prayer, if you have a known sin in your life He will not hear look what it says in Proverbs 28:9 He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer [shall be] abomination.
Even one known sin will close the door to God, also Faith, it says it says in Hebrews 11:6 But without faith [it is] impossible to please [him]: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and [that] he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Now how do you get this faith, again The Holy Bible to the rescue in Romans 10:17 So then faith [cometh] by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
There is ONE prayer GOD PROMISES to hear, its in
1 John 1:9 "IF" we confess our sins He is faithful and Just to forgive us our sins "AND" cleanse us from all unrighteousness, when you talk to God always use The Name of Jesus Christ and talk to Him as a Father, in the garden Jesus when He addressed His Father said Abba-Father, now Abba means papa or daddy, find out more free bible lessons www.amazingfacts.org email me also [e-mail] God bless

Answer 9

Exhort to prayer
1Tm:2:1: I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
1Tm:2:2: For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
1Tm:2:3: For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
1Tm:2:4: Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
1Tm:2:5: For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
1Tm:2:6: Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
1Tm:2:7: Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity.
1Tm:2:8: I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.
GOD LOVES YOU,FAITH COMES BY HEARING THE WORD OF GOD,USE THE HOLY BIBLE AND READ IT ALOUD DAILY IN A QUIET ROOM AND BELIEVE.

Answer 10

You can pray, any one can. Believe in your self. Ask and you shall receive. Read the book called "The serect", this will change the way you think, that is if you believe in your self.