“Its too painful to keep praying that prayer, so I stopped.” She looked at me before dissolving into tears again.
“Maybe I was wrong about what God said, or maybe I have never heard Him at all, I don’t know..”

I have lost count of the amount of times that I have heard something similar from a Christian mouth…

All of us are guilty, at times, of losing hope about something, of trading in our faith for doubt, of replacing our longed-for dream for ‘putting up with now.”

But Jesus taught us to pray and NEVER give up. That means this:
To pray even if nothing outward appears to change.
To pray even if we doubt that what we are praying is even right.
To pray even if outward circumstances appear to dictate the opposite truth.
To pray for the impossible and improbable and laughable.
To pray in all circumstances and situations.
To pray even and ESPECIALLY when we feel like not praying.

Someone today reading this has given up on God altogether. Haven’t you? He hasn’t answered your prayer, so you feel cheated and wronged. You feel as though He has deliberately set you up for a fall. You have fallen and now you are smarting and embittered.

But, my friend, God has not ‘left the building.’ He is still very active in your life. The enemy is just disguising it and making you believe the opposite. If you doubt God all sorts of hairy, scary and wary thoughts can enter your mind. You give them permission to set up camp and dwell around you and IN you. You don’t sleep well, you wake up tense, your eating patterns become unhealthy, you develop headaches, you are rude to others, you are negative about yourself, you stop hanging out with joyful people…

I encourage you today (because I heard God ask me to) to hold on unswervingly to the hope within you, to be like Abraham and hold fast to the ridiculous and impossible covenant God has made with you. When God made that promise to his beloved child, He asked Abraham to number the stars. Of course, Abraham was unable to.
That was a silly request.

But God sometimes says seemingly silly things.
‘You are going to have a baby whilst still being a virgin.” Silly.
‘You are 5 foot and a boy but you are going to kill a fighting giant that other warriors are terrified of.’ Silly.
‘You are going to be nailed to a cross as if you were the only and worst sinner on the planet, although you are actually wholly perfect.’ Silly.

Don’t mess with God’s silliness. It is the most sensible stuff you will ever hear.

Don’t be tempted to change your prayer, (unless God reveals that you must.) I read this today:

“I once prayed to God for a bike, but quickly found out He didnt work that way…so I stole a bike and prayed for His forgiveness.”

Now that really is silly.