{"id":254,"date":"2014-09-09T03:59:50","date_gmt":"2014-09-09T07:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/?p=254"},"modified":"2026-04-01T16:21:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T16:21:45","slug":"prayerlessness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/2014\/09\/09\/prayerlessness\/","title":{"rendered":"Prayerlessness"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple months ago I went to a leadership intensive at Church of the Highlands in Birmingham Alabama. It…was…awesome! But sadly, I could relate all too well to the following three comments by Chris Hodges:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. One of the side effects of not spending enough time in prayer is\u00a0that you’ll begin loving crowds, but not people<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
  2. We ought to have a relational<\/em> prayer life<\/strong>\u00a0with God and not just a rescue<\/em> prayer life<\/strong>. In a relational<\/em> prayer life you spend time with God just to nurture the relationship. In a rescue<\/em> prayer life you only spend time with God when you need something.<\/li>\n
  3. Ministry flows out of our personal relationship with Jesus<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Maybe these comments convict you as they did me? I knew that God was using this conference and Pastor Chris to let me know that my prayer life wasn’t where He wanted it to be. The old adage is true: The work of God can sometimes get in the way of the God you are working for – and that had become true in my life. So I repented the same day I heard this\u00a0message on prayer and my prayer life hasn’t been the same since. Here’s what I’m doing different:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Prayer is on my calendar.<\/li>\n
    2. I’m using the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6 as a guide to lead me through my prayer time.<\/li>\n
    3. I’ve made a prayer list.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      As I’ve been more faithful in prayer, here are the side effects:<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. I love people more.<\/li>\n
      2. I\u00a0have a relational<\/em> prayer life, not just a rescue<\/em> prayer life.<\/li>\n
      3. Ministry is flowing out of my personal relationship with Jesus.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        If you’re feeling convicted (as I did) when I evaluated where my prayer life was at, maybe you need to repent (as I did) and make the necessary changes. What’s the Holy Spirit speaking to your heart about your prayer life?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        A couple months ago I went to a leadership intensive at Church of the Highlands in Birmingham Alabama. It…was…awesome! But sadly, I could relate all too well to the following three comments by Chris Hodges: One of the side effects of not spending enough time in prayer is\u00a0that you’ll begin loving crowds, but not people. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-254","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-failures","7":"entry"},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Mike","author_link":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/author\/mike\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1230,"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254\/revisions\/1230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/withskillfulhands.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}