The Prayer Thread is a collection of teachings and practical prompts to help as we learn to pray in community. This text was originally delivered on May 22, 2026 as a short teaching at our online weekly prayer sit.
Yes, prayer is great, but it can also be hard.
There are so many ways to pray, and it can be hard to not only learn the many ways of prayer, but also to discern the forms of prayer that are life-giving.
There are so many changes in our prayer, and it can be hard to navigate the shifting landscape. In institutional prayer, words, rites, and beliefs about prayer change over time. Nudges from Spirit, mixed in with our own preferences and natural development, also provoke change in our personal prayer over time. Knowing what to change, when to change, and when to resist changes takes a lot of effort and intention!
There are long periods of time when it seems like nothing is really happening in our prayer, and it can be hard to stay motivated. The warm fuzzies disappear. The great insights rarely come. Even the desire to pray ebbs and flows. When nothing seems to
be happening on the surface, it can be hard to trust the invisible work of prayer.
There are so many subtleties and nuances in prayer! It can be hard to know what is real or an illusion. It can be hard to distinguish good from less good. It is too easy to overthink and overdo. Navigating the nuances of prayer’s origins and intentions can become too complex and easily overwhelm us.
Indeed, these are just some of the ways in which it can be hard to pray. Yet despite the difficulty, amazingly, we still pray! We show up again and again. We are nudged, lured, and drawn to pray and remain in prayer. Yes, prayer is hard. Yet we are blessed in our doing it anyway.
