The Battle of Prayer

One

The “Battle” of Prayer

There’s a real sense in which prayer is the primary business of life. We’re on this earth primarily to grow closer to God and we grow closer to God primarily through prayer because prayer is friendship with God. 

So prayer is what we’re made to do. But if that’s the case, why is it so hard? Why is it so tough to establish a prayer schedule, and why is it so tough to stay focused even when we do make it to prayer? In fact, the Catechism calls prayer “a battle.” That’s strong language. A Battle? Against whom? Whom are we fighting when we struggle to pray?

Actually, it turns out, we’re fighting two opponents. There are two forces at work within us, both of them trying to keep us from praying. And surprisingly, those two enemies are time and love.

Two

Fighting Against Time

Of course, by far the most popular excuse for people not praying is that they don’t have the time. As the Catechism notes, “Many Christians unconsciously regard prayer as an occupation that is incompatible with all the other things they have to do: they ‘don’t have the time’” (CCC #2726).

Okay, so time is the first battle we have to fight. We have so much to do. But here’s the point, the reason time is a battle is because we think there are so many other things we want to spend our time on. In other words, we spend our time on other stuff more than we spend it on God, because we care more about other stuff more than we care about God.

So, ultimately, our struggle against time is actually a struggle against love. We have to fight against spending too much time on worldly things because we have to fight against spending too much of our love on worldly things.

Three

Fighting Against Love of the World

So now we’ve answered our first question. We asked, “If prayer is the primary thing we were made for, then why is it so hard?” The answer is simple: We love worldly things too much. That’s what we see, that’s what we think about, that’s what we long for. So, surprise, surprise, that’s where we spend our time.

Again, these are the two things we’re fighting in the battle for prayer, too much time spent on things of this world and too much love dedicated to things of this world.

But the good news is, once you start winning the battle against time, you’ll start winning the battle of love.

Four

Time with Someone Leads to Love of Someone

It’s a funny thing, but it often happens that the more time you spend with someone, the more you often get to like them. It’s often the case that friends and family members and often even spouses start disliking one another when they stop spending time together. But if they commit to spending time in each other’s company, they see that their biases and uncharitable judgments won’t hold up to the reality of the other person’s goodness.

Which means the more time you spend in someone else’s company, the more likely it is that you’ll enjoy their company more and the more time you’ll want to spend with them. So too with God, commit to spending time with Him in daily prayer. Eventually, that time spent with Him will cause you to love Him. Then you’ll want to spend time with Him. Then the battle of prayer will be won.

Five

Winning the Battle for Prayer

We started out by saying that prayer is a battle and it’s a battle of time and a battle of love. We spend our time on everything but God because we love the other stuff more than we love God. 

Understandably, you might say, “Whoa, wait a minute! I have work and kids and kids activities and the care of elderly parents…Things I can’t ignore.” True! Honestly assess how you are using your time when you aren’t doing those things.

We waste at least thirty minutes a day. That could be for prayer.

Jesus said, “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.” He didn’t say “wean yourself off.” What are you doing when you waste time? Cut that off and you will have lots of time for prayer.