PRAISE & PRAYER PROMPT ••• Some mornings I wake up and it’s easy to start writing. And then, there’s this morning. The words seem to be stuck. I keep thinking of when I made ghost pepper sauce a few months ago. There were bits of tomato and onion that would get stuck in the funnel as I was bottling the sauce. My cake tester was put to a whole new, unintended use that day as I tried to shove bits through the hole so the sauce would flow.
And I guess that’s where we are topic wise. When we feel stuck.
It’s not an uncommon feeling. Maybe our prayer life doesn’t feel like it’s going anywhere or our Bible reading feels dry. Or maybe we feel like we’re in a spiritual desert. All of it’s normal and everyone feels that way sometimes. We want to feel spiritually productive. But sometimes, we need a nudge.
So how do we get the flow back? Short of using a cake tester?
It really starts with praise and worship. When we don’t feel like praying, we need to praise God. When we are sad, praise Him. When we are angry, praise Him. When we don’t feel like being Christ-like, we need to praise Him. When we don’t feel like loving others, we need to praise Jesus. When we don’t feel like forgiving, we need to praise Him for His forgiveness. When we don’t feel like praising, we need to praise Him anyway.
The logjam is always unleashed through the power of persistent praise and worship. You may not feel like it, and it may take you a bit to get worked up to it, but God is faithful. Many of the Psalms are a great place to start—Psalm 95 and 150 being popular choices.
In Psalm 34:1 ESV, King David wrote, “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.” If only it were that easy, right? But let’s go to Hebrews. The writer spoke of sacrifices that are pleasing to God and said, “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name” (Hebrews 13:15 ESV). So even when praise feels hard and it means sacrificing our grudges and pride—we praise Him anyway. Then, like David, we can have His praise always on our lips.
Praise unblocks the feeling of spiritual drought. Stop focusing on what you don’t feel and focus on who He is. Then experience the rain of His goodness wash over you and fill you to overflowing.
Today, as you pray, thank God for being worthy of all praise, glory, and honor. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you praise at all times, even when you don’t feel like it, trusting in Him to use praise to glorify Him and strengthen you.
