Facing difficulty is a huge reality in the Christian life. I don’t mean the day to day struggles like traffic, spilling your coffee, or breaking a shoelace. Those things are easy. I am referring to bigger things like cancer, the loss of a job, or losing a loved one. As God’s people, we know that we should pray at these times. Yet, for many Christians, the reality is that our Christian walk is not what it should be. When these “big” difficulties come into our lives, we sometimes feel ashamed to come to God because we know we have not prayed to Him in the past like we should. Our consistency in prayer is just not there. So, our human tendency is to abstain from praying. We don’t want God to think we run to Him only when we have problems, do we?

Take heart, Christian. Your best alternative is to go to your Savior. If you are ashamed because of your lack of prayer, ask Him for forgiveness, then move on. He tells us in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Don’t allow the devil to get the victory in this area. Prayer works! E.M. Bounds said, “Only God can move mountains and only prayer moves God.”

Last week, my father-in-law was told by his doctor he has a tumor in his inner ear. His doctor made an appointment for him with a hear, nose, and throat specialist. We started praying when we heard the news. Just yesterday, he went to the specialist. The doctor looked in his ear and found no sign of any tumor at all! God is still in the miracle working business.

Psalm 91:2 I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.