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Draw near: Feeling unworthy as an obstacle to prayer

Lynne Baab • Tuesday August 9 2022

Draw near: Feeling unworthy as an obstacle to prayer

“For many years I believed I couldn’t even approach God in prayer until I had dutifully catalogued a litany of the sins I had committed since the last time I had prayed. Quite often the process of prayer made me feel unworthy, unholy, and exhausted by my own inadequacy. And I was taught, and indeed believed, that these were the things I was always supposed to feel – inadequate and unworthy – so that I could be properly grateful for the extension of divine grace. The consequence was that sometimes it simply felt better not to pray.”
—Britney Cooper, professor at Rutgers University, “Returning to repentance,” Christian Century

I hope Dr. Cooper’s words arouse profound sadness in you like they do in me. In the Christian Century article I’m quoting from, she goes on to describe the ways her mind has changed. She began to seek out a more expansive gospel, and she found a God who is unconditionally loving.

I wonder if you experience moments parallel to what Dr. Cooper describes. Do you believe on any level that you have to catalogue your sins before you can enter into God’s presence? Do you ever find that prayer leaves you feeling “unworthy, unholy, and exhausted by my own inadequacy”? Do you ever feel that it might be better simply not to pray?

If none of these feelings are a part of your prayer life, praise God. I mean that literally, spend some time praising God that you never heard or believed the kind of teaching that Dr. Cooper received.  What a gift to feel free to enter into God’s presence whenever and wherever we want.

I suspect that most of us have small or big moments when we feel inadequate and unworthy. We may not have absorbed those feelings in church, but if feeling inadequate and unworthy are ever a part of our inner landscape, those feelings will probably spill over into our relationship with God in unexpected and perhaps even unseen ways.

I want to propose four strategies (among many possibilities) for resting in being God’s beloved, and therefore feeling confident and joyful entering into God’s presence in prayer.

1. If someone came to you and told you they often feel inadequate and unworthy in a way that blocks their ability to pray, and asked you for advice, what would you say? Whatever comes to mind for another person is probably good advice for ourselves.

2. Find a scripture that helps you feel beloved, perhaps Psalm 23, Psalm 131, Jesus’ words about his yoke being easy (Matthew 11:28-30), or the invitation to prayer in Hebrews 4:15-16. Tape that scripture on your bathroom mirror, above your kitchen sink, or onto your desk or bedside table. Ponder it. Memorize it. Pray it. Ask God to write it on your heart.

3. Engage in breath prayer. Breathe in God’s love, which surrounds us like the air. Breathe out the feelings of unworthiness and inadequacy. Ask God to deal with them as you breathe them out.

4. Go for a walk. Sit in a garden. Watch a nature video. Soak up the beauty of God's creation. You, too, are one of God's beloved creatures. 

For today, let’s pray along with the psalmist:

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up,
   my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
   too great and too marvellous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
   like a weaned child with its mother;
   my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.
          —Psalm 131:1, 2

(Next week: confessing sin without wallowing. Illustration by Dave Baab: the Merced River near the west entrance to Yosemite National Park in California. If you'd like to receive an email when I post on this blog, sign up under "subscribe" below.)

Here are two articles I wrote that were published elsewhere that I recently uploaded to this website:



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