Prayer: What Gets in the Way
Daniel 10:10 Presumably the angel that touches Daniel here is Gabriel as mentioned earlier in Dan 9:21
Verse 12 But then he says that from the moment you began to pray your prayers were heard.
• This should be very comforting for us, even when it doesn’t feel like it, God hears our prayers right from the beginning. Knowing this should fuel the faith in our prayers
Verse 13 Then angel tells Daniel that his coming has been delayed for 21 days.
• We see that not only can answer to prayers be delayed, they can be delayed by other spirits.
o Most bible scholars believe this is the “governing evil spirit for the Persian nation”
• This also reminds us of the spiritual battle that rages around us that we may not always be aware of.
o We also see different levels of power and authority in the spirit realm, that work against prayer.
• This relates to us more in terms praying for our city and our community.
Now Just some practical things:
1. Feelings of inadequacies: Feeling inadequate to pray in general, at a prayer meeting for example.
a. I don’t know how to pray or what to pray for. I don’t have the words to pray.
2. Feeling inadequate to pray out loud
a. Remember praying is talking to our friend Jesus. Just talk like you would to a friend.
3. Feeling inadequate to pray like others.
a. Remember this is not a competition. No one, not even God is judging your prayers.
4. Asking for things is selfish
a. Jesus says we can ask for whatever we want in His names. 6 times in the book of John
5. Prayer is not tangible Prayer might feel this way if we don’t know what to pray.
i. If we don’t know the One we pray to, or if we are always praying for our own desires
6. Praying passively
a. Jesus teaches more than once about praying with great boldness and persistence. Luke 10:8
7. Distractions We have already talked about this a lot lately.
8. Attitude or thinking that prayer doesn’t work
a. I prayed once and nothing happened so what’s the point of praying?
9. Lack of consistency Don’t pray from your circumstances that leads to inconsistency, pray from relationship
10. Praying for problems and troubles We must pray “Let your Kingdom Come”
11. Too Busy Quite honestly this one is probably related to number 8 (praying doesn’t work)
a. If we think there isn’t much point in praying then we aren’t going to make time for prayer.
b. Of course, the enemy likes to distract us with busyness.
12. Feeling like God will judge me if I pray wrong or if I fail to pray
a. This is a lie from the enemy related to legalism.
b. But what God judges is show offs. Matt 6:5
