A number of years ago I realized that I had so many interests that I would fail to do anything super well because I was to fragmented. I needed to do some serious cutting out of my life some activities so I could be successful in one or two areas. I decided to write a purpose statement for my life that would zero in on what I wanted to accomplish. I came up with this; “I will be a man devoted to prayer, and I will convince as many others to be devoted to prayer as I can.” I am sure that if I want to accomplish the maximum possible in my lifetime this is the route I need to go.
So the first part of my purpose statement I have been accomplishing fairly well. I spend about an hour praying every day, and I have seasons where I spend up to 8 hours praying, usually during our church’s 5 day prayer events four times a year. I struggle with the discipline of prayer like everyone else. I fall asleep while praying, my mind wanders over to fishing or hunting, I get bored, and it becomes a grind to stay at it faithfully. The thing that helps my private prayer life stay alive and energized is the corporate prayer times that I attend during the week and then these quarterly 5 days of prayer that go 10 hours each day really launch me into a prayer attitude and faithfulness.
The second part of my life purpose of convincing as many other people as possible to become devoted to prayer has been less successful and at times down right discouraging. I get so much “push back” from people who are wanting to justify their own lack of prayer, and to get me to quit making them feel guilty for their less than fully devoted prayer life.
I am convinced that my struggle is not really with people, but with the demons that follow them everywhere they go or riding on their shoulders. These demons know that they can’t stay connected to people who pray more than token prayers so they talk non-stop to them with all the reasons and excuses why being devoted to prayer is for others, especially corporate prayer. They hear them in their own thoughts which they think are their own thoughts and wisdom coming right straight from them.
Pastor Dee's Blog 
Dee, thank you for your unswerving devotion to prayer and continued reminders to the rest of us. Although I don’t pray an hour a day, the praying I do is largely because of your example and encouragement.
I have been strongly impacted by some of your teaching on the reasons people’s prayers don’t seem to ‘work’ — I think you’ve boiled it down to 8 or 12 things that render our prayers ineffective. I would love to get a reminder on those things. Maybe you could write again about that?
Also, a discussion on your idea of ‘prayer horsepower’ might be helpful. That teaching of yours encourages me to pray for others (rather than just myself) and also encourages me to pray with my wife and with others.
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On our web sight you should be able to find the sermon series “the dirty dozen” 12 reason why God doesn’t answer our prayers. If you listen to one of the last ones you should get all 12 on review so you don’t have to listen to everyone of them to get the list.
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Thank you pastor for plucking me out of dry as dirt duty.
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Thanks Dee. It’s encouraging to know that I’m not the only one who struggles with distractions or sleepiness when praying. I’ve found it sometimes helps to write my prayers.
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