Obstacles to Prayer

As Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed him. Two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they shouted, ‘Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!’ The crowd rebuked them and told them to be quiet, but they shouted all the louder, ‘Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!’ Jesus stopped and called them. ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ he asked. ‘Lord,’ they answered, ‘we want our sight.’ Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him. (Matthew 20:29-34)

What would life have been like for these two blind men? Their condition kept them from receiving an income from most work otherwise available to them. They likely experienced judgment because many people thought blindness and other disabilities were consequences of sin (see John 9:2). It also must have been difficult to cry out for mercy from Jesus when they didn’t know if or how he would respond, and it must have been humiliating to draw that much attention to themselves, especially when others kept trying to silence them. And yet their increased persistence (and volume!) resulted in Jesus healing them. This reminds us of all the obstacles we often must overcome when we need to continue praying and asking for others to pray with us:

• Vulnerability: We continue praying even when we don’t want to draw attention to ourselves or admit to ourselves or anyone else that we have need.

• Discouragement: We continue praying even if we’ve prayed for a long time, and even if others lose the willingness to keep praying with us.

• Judgment: We continue praying even if we or others believe that we’re somehow responsible for our predicament.

And yet our first obstacle to prayer may be speaking out loud what we want from him, even though we’ve asked for it many times in the past. What do you want Jesus to do for you?