Ask the God Pod: "What if I Don’t Feel Like Praying?"

Let’s be honest: there are days when prayer feels hard. Maybe you’re tired, overwhelmed, emotionally numb—or maybe you just don’t feel connected to God right now. In this heart-to-heart episode, Leanne unpacks why so many of us resist prayer, even when we know we should do it, and how to shift from obligation to genuine conversation with God. If you’ve ever felt like you’re “doing prayer wrong,” or you’re stuck in a season where it feels awkward, distant, or dry, you’re not alone. This episode is all about giving yourself grace and learning how to show up authentically in your relationship with God—even when words are hard to find.

HOST: Leanne Ellington // StresslessEating.com // @leanneellington 

To learn more about Leanne, head over to www.LeanneEllington.com, and to share your thoughts, questions, feedback, or guest suggestions instantly, head on over to www.WhatsGodGotToDoWithIt.com.

Follow Leanne on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leanneellington/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
If you want to go on a journey. If you're skeptical,
don't worry. Now here to preach. I'm gonna keep it
clean and talk to me and recaud where faith need,
spars of nature, get in touch with your creator with
a Baker, love and jew She even speaks Hebrew.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
What's that, Gotzato?

Speaker 1 (00:31):
What's that? As well?

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Sadposation?

Speaker 1 (00:38):
You should talking transformation? What's that?

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Gonzato?

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Hey?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Hey, and welcome back to What's God got to do
with it? And today we're diving into a big, honest
and super common question that got sent into Ask the
God pod, and I know it hits home for so
many of us. And the question is what if I
just don't feel like praying? And so maybe you've been there,
you know, feeling dry, disconnected, or even a little bit

(01:06):
guilty because you know, prayer is supposed to be this beautiful, powerful,
intimate connection with God, but you just don't feel it.
Or maybe you're in a place where you want to
want to pray, like you want to want to pray,
but the desire just isn't there right now. And so,
first of all, if that's you, you are, there's nothing
that you're doing wrong. You are not failing, and you're

(01:28):
definitely not alone in this. I've definitely been there too.
And yeah, even after everything I've shared on this podcast,
and even after building an entire relationship with God from scratch,
after years without living without him, I still have seasons
where prayer feels hard or distant or forced. And I
used to beat myself up for that, and I used
to believe that there was something wrong with me, or

(01:49):
that I was, you know, messing up my relationship with God.
But the truth is it's a lot more common than
we realize. And so today we're gonna unpack. You know
why we don't always feel like praying oiler alert, It's
because you're human, right, But also where that resistance might
be coming from, and how to gently shift from I
should pray to hey, I want to talk to God.

(02:11):
So let's go ahead and just normalize this. First of all,
you are not a bad Christian or a bad prayer
or messing up your relationship with God. If you struggle
with prayer, you are just human. And so let's get
super real, right, There's a lot of reasons why we
might feel resistance to prayer, and sometimes we don't even
recognize it. As resistance. It just shows up as procrastination

(02:34):
or avoidance or disinterest. But then the guilt sets in,
and then shame joins the party, and before we know it,
we're even more disconnected. And so here's a few reasons
that this can happen. The first reason is shame and
unworthiness okay, And so sometimes we don't feel like we
can go to God because we're feeling ashamed or unworthy

(02:56):
or like we've disappointed him and maybe we haven't you know,
been doing the right things, or we feel like we've
messed up and we start to think why would God
want to hear from me? Or like what would I
say to him if I did show up? But my friends,
this is exactly when we need prayer the most, okay,
not as some spiritual obligation, but has a lifeline when

(03:18):
we're feeling those things and as a reminder that God's
love isn't performance based and He's not waiting for us
to clean up before we can come to him. He
wants us to come as we are. Okay. The next
reason is, you know, we think that prayer has to
be perfect, right, or organized, and maybe you were raised
in a faith environment where prayer was formal or structured

(03:40):
or filled with pressure to say the air quotes right things.
And so now the idea of praying feels intimidating or
overwhelming or like you're going to mess it up. But
here's the truth. God is not grating your prayers. He's
not standing there with a red marker right and he's
not looking for eloquence. He is looking for honesty. He
wants your real voice, not a rehearsed one, not some

(04:04):
sugarcoated voice. He wants to hear your real voice, your
real heart. And some of the most powerful prayers that
I have ever prayed have been one sentence and most
likely whispered through tears. Where it starts with God, I
don't even know what to say right now, And that's
where I start. I say, God, I don't even know
what to say right now. I am feeling X or

(04:24):
this is happening, and I feel bad that I don't
even know what to say right now. All the things
I just start there, God, I don't even know what
to say right now, and that counts okay. The next
reason is we're emotionally or spiritually burned out, and life
can be a lot sometimes like a lot and maybe
you're carrying emotional exhaustion or spiritual burnout or mental fatigue,

(04:45):
and in those moments, even thinking about prayer feels kind
of heavy. And again, that doesn't mean that you don't
love God, and it doesn't mean that you are disconnected period,
end of sentence. It just means that you're weary. And
even that is something that you can bring into prayer.
And so Matthew eleven twenty eight, it says, come to me,
all you who are weary and burdened, and I will

(05:08):
give you rest. And notice it doesn't say like, come
to me when you're motivated, or come to me when
you've got it together. He says come as you are. Okay,
So what do we do when prayer feels hard? And
so let's talk about how to gently move back into
connection with God without pressure or guilt or performance, because again,

(05:30):
prayer isn't about checking a box. It's about relationship and
it's a conversation, not a chore. And if it feels
like a chore, that's okay too, But that's what we
want to talk about. And so here are a few
simple shifts that can make prayer feel more accessible. Again,
So the first thing is just start where you are, Like,
you don't need a spiritual warm up, and you don't

(05:52):
need the right mood or mindset. Okay, you can just
start right where you are. Whether that's tired, anxious, angry, numb, overwhelmed, hungry,
whatever it is, God can handle it. And also, I
want to give you permission if what you're coming to
God with you feel petty or caddy or mean or whatever,
like you feel like you're being a victim, you feel

(06:13):
like whatever. God can handle that too, and owning it
is a beautiful thing. In fact, when you come to
Him raw and real, you're actually bringing your most authentic
self into relationship with Him. And so one of my
favorite things to do when I feel stuck is to say, God,
I don't even know what I'm doing right now, but
I know I want to connect with you. Please meet

(06:35):
me here right, Or if I'm journaling, I'll say, hey, God,
I'm here, Like, do what you will with me. I'm
just showing up right. That is a prayer asking God
to just meet you there. The next thing is to
shorten the distance, and so we often think prayer has
to be long and elaborate. Right, we think about in maximums.
If I don't have thirty minutes or I don't have
twenty minutes, then I don't have time to pray. But

(06:56):
it's like, what if it was thirty seconds instead of
thirty minutes? Right, Sometimes the most honest prayer is a
single sentence breathed in the middle of your day, and
like for me, it's like God, I need you, or
it's God, please help me call my thoughts, or God,
thank you for this moment, like wow, I don't want
to miss this, right, just that like ten second prayers.
The more you practice these micro prayers, the more you'll

(07:19):
begin to see prayer as an ongoing conversation with God,
not just something that you do in a quiet room
for thirty minutes like a zen monk. Right. When you
can do it like this, you can go in it
with minimums not maximums. You start to see Him everywhere,
and you can pray indefinitely and infinitely. The next thing
is just to make prayer a dialogue. It doesn't have

(07:40):
to be a formal monologue. And so often we think
of prayer as us just talking at God. But what
if it's also about creating space to listen? Right? And
that might look like sitting quietly for a few minutes
after you pray, or it might be journaling and seeing
what comes up. Or it might be even taking a
walk and asking God to show you something as you

(08:02):
move your body. And so remember, prayer isn't about performance.
It's not like a checklist that you just Okay, done, prayer,
did that for the day? Right. It is about presence
and communion and relationship. And it doesn't have to be
loud to be powerful. The next thing I want to
offer you is what if you tried praying without words?
So this one was a game changer for me, is

(08:23):
you don't have to have the words. Okay, Sometimes just
sitting in God's presence with your heart open is enough.
Like put on worship music, light a candle, take a
deep breath in, smell some essential oils, whatever it is,
and just be with him. Like even if there's no
thinking or talking or speaking or listening, it's just sitting
in his presence. Romans eight twenty six says the Spirit

(08:48):
helps us in our weakness. We do not know what
we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes
for us. I love that we do not know what
we ought to pray for but the Spirit himself intercedes
for us, right, and so even when you don't have words,
just show up. The Spirit is already praying on your behalf.

(09:08):
Just show up. That's all he's asking, okay. And then,
of course, this is one of my go tos, is
to just journal it out. And so if sitting in
silence or speaking out loud feels too hard, write it down.
There is something magical that happens, not to mention neuromagical
that happens when you put pen to paper, and so
let your journal be the space where you talk to God.

(09:29):
Like there is no right or wrong way to do it.
You can just write, you know, God, here's what I'm feeling,
or God, I don't understand this. Or I've had ones
where I'm like, God, I'm mad at you right now
and then I realize, okay, that's okay too, right, Or God,
I want to feel close to you again, but I
don't feel close to you, right. So this turns your
journal into this sacred space where you can process your

(09:49):
thoughts with God instead of away from him. And so
all of this is just to say, like, if you're
in a season where you don't feel like praying. I
want to say, from the bottom of my heart, God
is not mad at you about that, and he's not
disappointed in you, and he's not going anywhere, okay, Like
if you don't come to him and pray for a
few days, he's not like, fine, I'm done with her. Right,

(10:10):
this isn't a performance issue. It's a heart invitation, okay.
And so I invite you instead of saying I should
be praying. What if the question became like, what would
it look like to just let God be with me today? Right? Like,
just be with me today on my walk, at my work,
when I'm on that phone call. Right, Prayer doesn't have
to be fancy or formal, and it definitely doesn't have

(10:31):
to be flawless. Right. It can be a sigh, It
can be a whisper. It can be a tear. It
can be a song that you're listening to that just
moves your spirit or gives you goosebumps. It can be
a walk, it can be a page in your journal.
God just wants to be with you. And whether you're
on fire for him or you're barely hanging on, his
love for you hasn't changed. And so this week, let

(10:54):
that be your practice, like not praying perfectly, but just
showing up honestly, even if all you say is like, God,
I don't feel like praying, but I still want to
stay close to you. That my friend is a prayer okay,
and even that like that in itself is where real
connection begins. Okay. So thank you for hanging out with
me today on What's God Got to Do with It?
And this. If this episode gave you permission to exhale

(11:17):
and if it helped you feel less alone in your
faith walk, that makes me very happy and feel free
to just share it with somebody else who might need
that too. And if you've got a question you'd love
for me to answer in a future, ask the God
plod please send it my way. And until next time,
just remember God is there for you. He just wants
you to show up, all right. He's not looking for
perfect prayers, He's just looking for you. Bye. We'll be

(11:41):
back with more What's God Got to Do with It?
But in the meantime, I would definitely love to hear
from you, So just tell me where you are in
your story or maybe what questions you have, like where
do you feel you need clarity or support? Or wisdom
in your own journey. I definitely want to hear from you,
So head on over to What's God Got to Do

(12:01):
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(12:22):
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It's written and hosted by me Leanne Ellington, executive produced

(12:44):
by Elizabeth Fozio, post production and editing by Houston Tilley,
and original music written by Cheryl Stark and produced by
Adam Stark.