How Do I Pray When
I Don't Believe or I Feel Too Ill?
...Continues from I Feel Too Sick to Pray
Contents of How do I Pray ...
- Make a commitment to prayer discipline in the times when you feel better
- Persevere – Prayer does make a difference (includes a poem)
- Action Points for How Do I Pray?
- A Short Prayer to Bless you
- COMMENT, or SHARE your own wisdom or experience on prayer
Can I ask God for help when I don't believe prayer works?
You may ask:
"How can I pray to God when my faith is gone?"
You may think...
"There is no point in praying without faith."
"Perhaps it is not acceptable to God to pray when I don't believe."
You may say:
"I am too ill to pray."
"And I find it hard to believe that there is
any chance of feeling at peace with these symptoms, or any chance of the
symptoms going."
Notice your words.
Are they asking for what you want?
Be gentle with yourself as you notice any words that ask for 'what you do not want'.
Now are you willing to replace your words to ask for what you do want?
Now take new thoughts that say the opposite: thoughts of belief...
How do I pray? -
Replacing Unwanted Thoughts With New Thoughts
Dear God,
I accept that I have faith.
I choose to believe it is growing all the time.
There is always a point to prayer. Prayer takes me from a place of lack into a place of possibility.
God, I am always acceptable to you. The solution is found in allowing myself to be accepted and guided by you .
When I feel doubt or feel ill, I run to you God not from you.
I affirm: I am well enough to pray.
Talking to you leads me in the direction of peace.
Either I will find peace in this situation,
or prayer will lead the situation to change.
Thank you God.
Amen
You can also ask God to teach you to pray:
Dear God, how do I pray with belief?
The Bible story of a man who asks Jesus to heal his Son:
“..if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”
“ ‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for him who believes.”
Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!””
(Mark 9, NIV)
“I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
I have prayed this prayer many times. I will pray it many times more.
The Bible quote shows that our faith does not need to be perfect to see results.
The man has enough belief that Jesus might be able to help to bring himself to where he is.
He asks for help.
He asks for help in letting go of his unbelief.
These steps are enough for healing to take place.
So don't try to believe. If you knew how to pray with absolute faith, you would do so already.
Just be willing, ask God for help and keep practising belief.
Prayer discipline in the times when you feel better
Many illnesses have fluctuating symptoms. There may be times when you
feel you know the answer to "how do I pray?", but do not do so because
you want to enjoy the time in which you feel better.
Can you enjoy the time when you feel better by praying?
It is easier to believe you can be healed or experience peace in times when the symptoms are not so strong.
If you are feeling better now, then pray NOW.
Think about practising a traditional prayer.
Think about deciding on some daily prayers.
In a time of distress, it can be easier to pray these prayers than a spontaneous prayer.
How do I pray?
By developing a discipline of prayer. By practising NOW.
Then if
there are times when you feel too ill to pray new prayers, or you think:
“I cannot pray”, these prayers will be available in your mind.
When you prepare for an exam, do you revise only the night before?
Probably not. It would scare you to see how unfamiliar the information was when you are aware of how much you need it.
No. You prepare in advance. You prepare and prepare until that information comes to the top of your mind when you need it. Then you prepare some more to allow for the fact that you may feel under stress and forget it in the moment of the exam.
The times when you feel more ill are your exam. Don't wait until you are feeling ill to start praying.
Be prepared with chosen words to soothe your mind.
Be ready to give access to God to guide and comfort you.
Prepare yourself so you know how to pray.
If feeling too ill to pray is an issue for you, you may also want to look at the pages of Scriptures About Healing.
Persevere – Prayer does make a difference
A Spiritual Poem About Persevering
You Don’t Have To Be Happy About It
You don’t have to be happy about doing it to
create a new path,
You don’t have to be sure it is the right direction to
press down dirt into
new furrows;
You don’t have to know
it is working.
You have only to make a choice, and
keep on walking.
It's OK not to always feel happy about doing what you have decided to do.
“You are not asked to trust Him far. No more than what you see He
offers you, and what you recognize you could not give yourself.”
(T-25.VIII.9, A Course In Miracles)
© Katherine T Owen
Spiritual poems by the author on this site
For a FREE ebook of forgiveness exercises – It’s OK to...
For a discussion on how to use spirituality quotes as part of your spiritual practice.
Click here for other motivational poems on learning something new.
Action Points For "How Do I Pray?"
Set your intention for your commitment to prayer:
If there is a future time where you are feeling too ill to pray or too stuck to pray, what will you do or think to help yourself?
Here are some possible responses:
- Be kind to yourself. You are doing your best.
- Remember others are praying for you.
- Send love/light/prayer to another in the same situation.
- Believe that no matter how small your prayer, God meets you where you are.
- How do I pray when feeling ill? - Remember you know the answer. Sink into that place of knowing, confident that the answers will come.
A blessing and a short prayer from Katherine
You are well enough to pray.
May it always be so.
Dear God, on behalf of this person, I stop and invite you into this moment.
I invite you to be with us in the moments when we find it hard to call on you for ourselves.
May we always find it easy.
Thank you.
Amen.
A book by the author of this website:
Click above to
PREVIEW or BUY
It's OK to Believe
Part of the journey of "how do I pray?" involves building our faith.
In my book, It's OK to Believe, A Journey with Faith and Reason, I take you with me on my journey to answer and quieten my doubting mind.
Using spiritual narrative combined with accessible content poetry, I move from the questioning head into the heart of God.
Click on the book cover on the right to VIEW or BUY the book.
Click here to READ MORE about my book, It's OK To Believe.
If you benefited from these pages on I Feel Too Ill To Pray. you may also enjoy the page on How Do I Pray To God?
Let Us Know How You Pray To God
Do you want to share your own wisdom about how to pray? Do you still have doubts? How do you work with those? What works for you? How did you start praying?
Please share your story with myself and the visitors to this site.
What Other Visitors Have Said About
How To Pray
Click below to see contributions from other visitors to this page...
Healing Prayer
From Christine HK
Katherine: these beautiful healing prayers were posted in
a facebook group I run: Prayer for ME/CFS .. I asked Christine to share …
Father's Day Prayer
Please feel free to post your own Father's Day prayers below in the comments. Here is a short prayer of my own.
Dear God,
We say yes to the father …
Prayers for God’s guidance
A series of heartfelt prayers for God’s guidance from our visitor Daniel. The last two were submitted as prayer poems.
Bless you Daniel. May your prayers …
talking to God as prayer
Strength
Trying to make it through the this life is just like trying to swim across the Ocean. I'm a good swimmer but the water is really deep. My arms …
Prayer Requests
A letter to God
I need healing in my mind,
I need someone to love me,
I need a new relationship with my family,
I need acceptance from you …
What Is Prayer?
Prayer is calling for God’s help
Prayer is asking for the answers
Whether in a chapel or amongst the trees
It is not important, just bend to our knees. …
AMEN-THE POWER OF THIS WORD
Recently I read in a magazine of a lady who handed over a donation to a car guard at a shopping mall and the guard responded with a 'God bless you'. This …
Benefits of meditation
I meditate using a mantra which cultivates an Inner Silence;
aware,conscious and intelligent, this Inner Silence /Stillness is love and compassion. …
Are Catholics Christians?
Are Catholics Christians?
As a young Christian I was told many times that Catholics weren't Christians because they prayed to Mary instead of Christ. …
Loss of Attachment Holy Spirit
My case is almost same as yours once was.
All my muscles collapsed and I am having to eat puree etc
I was wondering how was it the first time when …
Mother Mary Experience
Dear Katherine,
I want to share two experiences about Mother Mary with you, seeing from your site that you have a place for her.
1. Sometime in 1995, …
Holy Spirit Experience
Thank God for the opportunity to share this with you. I stumbled on your site while searching for an explanation of psalm 91. I was happy to see your …
An Invitation to the Holy Spirit
Once the Christian believer is in a state of blessedness or grace, can we provide the spark or 'invitation' to the Holy Spirit whether in prayers, meditation …
Learn How Pray God
I find that often the use of prayer falls away and i simply enter into 'beingness' which is the closest term available.
One simply learns 'to be', a …
Peace Beyond Our Suffering- A Timely Communication
Those last 3 blog entries How do I pray when feeling ill have answered a question I was going to ask.
My mother, aged 80 is continually asking us …
Prayer personal experience
Our mother taught us prayers when my two brothers and I were children.
After I had an angel experience at seven years old, I started praying the rosary. …
The Ten Commandments - Bringing Up Children
Living The Ten Commandments
For many years now, there has been much controversy about whether The Ten Commandments should be displayed in schools. …
Praying the Psalms
Katherine,
I can feel the intense warmth and security you have captured from Psalm 91 to allay your personal doubts and fears of a threatening outside …
Weaving Together
Massage & Prayer
This offering which speaks of weaving together prayer and massage is an excerpt from an article entitled "Love the Body! Spirit, Nature and Prayer in Lomilomi" …
Move from Feeling Ill, How Do I Pray? to
the next article - A Practice of Daily Prayers
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Be Loved
Beloved
15 Spiritual Love Poems
God Love Self Love
(by the author of a-spiritual-journey-of-healing.com)
For 14 years, Katherine T Owen was severely disabled with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, unable to walk, with little speech, and with inadequate care.
Katherine's small beautiful collection of poems take the reader with her as she journeys to know both self love and
God's love.
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the PAPERBACK of
Be Loved Beloved
"One thing that struck me was the stripping of ego in the work. Most of us have a comfy ego façade, but weakness and disease tore Katherine’s away. The poems in Be Loved Beloved come from the heart."
Dana Taylor, Author of Ever-Flowing Streams: Tapping into Healing Energy
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