No matter how dedicated you are, one day you will miss a prayer time. No matter how serious about prayer you are, at some point you will realize it’s been too long since you’ve communicated with God.

Shhhhh… this makes some people uncomfortable but we all go through times when we don’t pray as much as we would like.

Everyone, yes everyone goes through cycles, has ups and downs or if you want to sound spiritual, we go through “seasons.”

I would guess in this line of thinking, Spring and Summer are good seasons of prayer and Fall and Winter aren’t so good.

For me, I have gone months and months where my prayer life was great. I prayed in the morning, throughout the day and in the evening. There have also been times where at the end of a day I realized I hadn’t prayed at all. Then I would quickly get myself together and pray an apologetic prayer about how I’ve messed up.

Here is the truth, you will go through this, don’t beat yourself up about it. Also, don’t give yourself excuses either. Just admit it and get right back to praying like you want. God isn’t waiting to punish you for your lack of “Summer time” prayer. He will be glad that you are praying at that moment.

Here is another truth that sounds contradictory.

There are definite times to stop praying and do something.

Maybe you’ve been praying for a chance to explain how much God loves us to a certain friend. If that friend knocks on your door out of the blue, you should probably stop praying and answer the door to talk to them. Yes that’s a ridiculous example but you get the idea.

After a fishing boat sank in the ocean, two men were in a life boat. They didn’t know what direction to travel so they didn’t row. They decided to pray, for days they prayed for a sign of land. On the fifth day they looked up and saw a huge island. One man began to row, the other decided to keep praying. The life boat went in circles until finally both men rowed to their answered prayer.

There are times when you pray and times when the answer shows up and we demonstrate our faithfulness by engaging with the answer. Then we pray again with thankful hearts knowing He answered again.

You will go through “seasons” of prayer. That means you are normal. What Larry and I want for you is to have an open and exciting prayer life. You will miss a day more than likely; just get back to it as soon as you can. There will be times when the prayers feel like they are hitting the ceiling, keep praying anyway. There will be times when it seems everything you prayed for is being answered quickly, be thankful.

Because when you stop to think about it, prayer connects us to the source of life.

Prayer is the greatest opportunity we have.

No matter what “season” you find yourself in, know that with God, Spring is eternal.

Written by Tom Wise © Finding Wonder 2013