Help with Prayer

I remember freezing up during a public prayer once. I was praying before I preached, and while the prayer started well, it didn’t end well.

About halfway through, I knew I had lost my train of thought and was forcing words out, to get through the prayer. I ended the prayer and moved on to the sermon.

No one else likely noticed anything wrong. But for me, it was embarrassing–one moment, I was leading the congregation in talking to God, and the next moment, I didn’t know what I was saying or where I was trying to go with the prayer.

Have you ever felt like this in prayer?

I realized later that I had been trying to pray what I thought needed to be prayed, not what was on my heart to pray. That was what had caused me to lock up. Public prayer can be difficult to lead, because, while it is unnecessary to feel this way, those praying in public can feel the pressure of the moment as they stand before a congregation during worship to lead them.

But personal prayer isn’t necessarily any easier. Who hasn’t had the experience of having a blissful time of personal prayer one day, only to follow it up with a distracted, unfocused mess of a time the next day?

Prayer isn’t easy. Examples of prayer help to lead and guide us. I’ve been helped in prayer by many experiences and mentors along the way.

Now, I want to help you. I’ve written a guide called “7 Days to More Effective Prayer.” In this guide, I share from my experiences in prayer and provide seven days of prayer guides for you to use. These prayer guides will help to shape your prayer experiences with a pattern that can be followed for rich daily prayer experiences.

I’m going to be giving this guide away for free to anyone who joins my Daily Discipleship community, but since you are already part of this community, I’m including it in this email.

You can download “7 Days to More Effective Prayer” for free by joining my Daily Discipleship community by email at dailydiscipleship.substack.com.

Please join, download the guide, read it, and use it. Contact me if you have any questions at all. In a couple of weeks, I will host a private prayer time on Zoom where I will model this for you in person.

— — — — —

Find out more about Jeremy at jeremyhoovercoaching.com and jeremyhooverministry.com.