There could be many reasons why someone would fail to pray. One reason involves the feeling of many Christians give that their prayers are blocked. Because of this, they begin to lose heart about praying, and therefore fail to pray as often or sincerely as they might otherwise.

Sometimes we may fail to pray because “Life is Good!” In fact, it is probably easiest to neglect prayer when life is going well, when our day-to-day needs are being met regularly. We live in such a privileged society; we have a glut of “stuff.” And, in the midst of this abundance, when we do pray, sometimes it is to ask for more of the stuff. Sometimes life has to get down and gloomy. Sometimes we have to feel desperate.

Another reason to neglect prayer is that some of us like a little challenge to life – to keep it interesting. Perhaps, we may like to take on the world so we can feel adequate. Some of us really enjoy feeling we have accomplished and neglect giving credit to God.

On the other hand, some people neglect prayer because they feel too inadequate or unworthy to pray. This reason is truly bogus because none of us can count on any worthiness we may think we have. Jesus has to get ALL of the credit for paying the price that we can come to God!

Some people may think God is angry with them and would not want to listen to them. Some people are themselves angry with God and simply do not want to admit it.

Sometimes we may not take the time to pray because we do not like being humbled! That’s one of the things that prayer is suppose to do for us – humble us.

Others of us may be too numbed. We may be so filled up, surfeited and over indulged to be concerned about others and in denial about how fragile, needy, and vulnerable we really are.

We neglect prayer sometimes because it just does not seem to be the magnificent gift that it is.

Too busy! Too tired! Don’t feel like it right now!

Does one whole day go by without prayer? How about several days? I mean prayer ON OUR KNEES. We know we “should,” so why don’t we? Some of us may wrangle with a choice to pray at the moment, but then think of something else and distract ourselves.

Do we realize how ESSENTIAL prayer is to our salvation (Hebrews 2:3)? Prayer is an INTEGRAL part of God’s plan to be close to us now and forever.

It’s at the darkest times in our lives that we tend to really pray. When our life is in turmoil, and we deeply need God, then is when we turn to earnest, heartfelt prayer.

Sometimes we really do pray, and then… sometimes we play at praying.

Let’s all be honest! Some of us fail to pray because of sheer apathy or sheer laziness. We can bore ourselves with our own repetitive requests. And, many, many of us simply allow ourselves to be distracted. There are many excuses other than the ones mentioned here….

Now, before we condemn ourselves as we admit some lack of consistent prayer, let us remember that our flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41, Mark 14:38, Romans 8:3), and that we CAN make better choices about praying. Our heavenly Father knows all about our inadequacies, including those dealing with prayer. And, He knows we are just vulnerable and frail; our fame is dust.

Psalm 103:14 For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.

It can be a very productive thing to prayerfully examine possible motives for neglecting prayer.