If you skipped prayer and now feel too guilty to pray again, you're caught in a trap. The speaker breaks the shame cycle by explaining that prayer isn't a performance that earns God's favor. Come back to prayer based on grace, not your track record.
So maybe you skipped a day of prayer. You know what the first thing you should do when you miss a day of prayer? Pray. I can't tell you how many times I've talked to believers who skip another day of prayer because they felt guilty about the day of prayer they skipped the day before. In other words, they feel like because they skipped prayer on Tuesday, that now God's mad at them, and they have to wait to work up what they had with God before on Wednesday. Well, I skipped prayer on Monday and Tuesday. I don't really feel like going to church this Sunday. I don't really feel like going to prayer on Wednesday. I don't really feel like approaching God right now because I failed. I didn't pray. I didn't give myself over to the Lord the way I was supposed to. And now I don't even feel like I want to look at him, right? There's like this shame in your heart. Well, this is to misunderstand what prayer is in the first place. You see, many believers will hesitate in their approach to God because they think they've lost favor with God. And many believers think they've lost favor with God because maybe they skipped a day of prayer. You approach God not because of your perfect prayer schedule. You can approach God not because of how you performed throughout the week. Rather, you can approach God because of the finished work of the cross.
