When Prayer is a Struggle with Kevin Halloran

This season, we’re working through each of the habits in 8 Habits for Growth. Now we are discussing the fourth habit: praying, or speaking with God.

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t struggle to pray. Kevin Halloran has written a helpful book called When Prayer is a Struggle: A Practical Guide for Overcoming Obstacles in Prayer. Kevin helps us pinpoint areas of weakness in your prayer life and take immediate steps to overcome them.

You can listen to the episode below:

Key Ideas

Let God’s sovereignty drive you to prayer rather than give you an excuse not to pray.
Remembering simple gospel truths can motivate us to pray.
We sometimes focus on the duty of prayer so much that we lose sight of the privilege we have to be able to pray.
Praying Scripture can help guide us and give our minds a path to follow.
We need good systems to pray intentionally for others.
Instead of focusing on prayer itself, focus instead on prayer as the means for knowing God and for shaping our lives and our hearts according to his will.
We sometimes struggle in prayer because we forget to think of God as our Father. You can run to your Father with anything.
Find and remove distractions that keep you from prayer.
When you get distracted, just pick up where you left off and keep praying.
Plan a regular rhythm of prayer.
Use the habit stacking technique to add prayer to something you are already doing.
When feeling anxious, bring your anxiety to God, and focus on him instead of your anxieties.

Quotes

“He can control the whole universe and he understands what you’re asking, what you need, and so that’s very inviting in terms of prayer.”

“Remembering simple gospel truth for me is what motivates me the most to pray and helps me overcome the obstacles that I have.”

“Without a growing faith and a growing love for God, trying to grow in prayer is not going to be useful.”

“We need to put our eyes on God and warm our hearts with what he’s done for us in Christ.”

“Knowing God, knowing Christ and prayer is a major way that we know God, communicate with him, and live in that relationship.”

“The more we do hide from God, the worse everything is in the end.”

“I can run to my Father with anything.”

“The Lord just deepens my appreciation for the simple things I learned in Sunday school and those are often the things that transform my life the most.”