It is not every day that you’ll be in a good mood to pray in tongues. Some days will be easy, while others will be very difficult. On easy days, it feels as if you will never have a difficult day, but on difficult days, it feels like the night Jesus was praying in the garden of Gethsemane.
Having experienced both easy and difficult days of praying in tongues, I am here to guide you on how to handle difficult days.
However, before I delve into how to handle difficult days, let me start by explaining how to handle easy days. Yes. How you handle easy days determines a lot about how you handle difficult days.
The easy days
Typically, on easy days of praying in tongues, there are two things that align perfectly: One, your mind is usually in a good state, and two, your environment is usually conducive.
These are important factors to remember because, on your difficult days of praying in tongues, these are the same factors that are missing. Unfortunately, some believers fail to guard their environment and their minds jealously, leading them to experience many difficult days.
On your good days of praying in tongues, take note of the state of your mind and the environment around you. That way, when you experience difficult days, it will be easy for you to retrace your steps back to that good state of mind and environment that is conducive for praying in tongues.
The devil is aware of these two factors and will always try to destroy your good state of mind and make your environment chaotic. Your duty is to make sure the devil doesn’t get a chance to interfere with these two important factors.
The unexpected reason to pray
One time, I got into the habit of waking up at 4:30 a.m. to pray in tongues. I was motivated to pray early in the morning because I used to go out for evangelism during the day. After praying in tongues for an hour, I would feel very confident going out to share the gospel, and God would lead me in many ways.
However, as weeks went by, I started feeling too tired to wake up and pray in the morning. The fatigue was mostly mental. Not knowing what to do about it, I just prayed for the strength to continue. Sometimes the evangelism sessions would be very discouraging, which made me question the effectiveness of the praying in tongues sessions that I was doing every morning.
That went on for a while until one morning, when something interesting happened. Before going to bed the previous night, I was feeling mentally exhausted and was contemplating not waking up the following morning to pray. However, not wanting to give in to the fatigue, I made a casual prayer, asking God to give me a reason to wake up the following morning to pray in tongues.
It was one of those casual prayers that you make and assume nothing will happen. I said to myself, “If I fail to wake up and pray, I will blame God for not having given me a reason.” Little did I know that God was not going to make me have a reason to blame Him.
Apart from asking God to give me a reason to pray, I also asked Him to wake me up. The following morning, my sleep disappeared at exactly 4:29 a.m. I was set to wake up at 4:30 a.m.
When I checked my watch and noticed it was 4:29 a.m., I knew it was God who had woken me up. I chuckled a bit at how accurate God was with His timing. A minute later, my alarm rang.
I switched it off, but I was feeling very low, with no energy to pray in tongues.
I continued lying in bed with no attempt to pray whatsoever. One part of me was saying, “God has woken you up to pray, so don’t disappoint Him,” but another part of me was saying, “God was supposed to give you a reason to pray on top of waking you up. You have no reason to pray. Just go back to sleep.”
After a few minutes of deliberation, I started feeling sleepy. Slowly but surely, I fell asleep and started to dream. The dream was so vivid that my physical body was reacting to the occurrences in the dream.
A chilling dream
In the dream, I saw myself sitting on a couch. Next to me was a young man wearing headphones, listening to hip-hop music. I began talking to him about Christ, persuading him to stop listening to secular music. However, the young man would not listen to me and wasn’t even looking at me.
In the process, my eyes turned to the other side of the living room. On the far end, there was a dark figure sitting on a chair, looking straight at me. The figure had a human body, but it was covered in scales like a serpent, and the scales were pitch black. The eyes of the figure were blood red, and its fingers were slim and long, with sharp, pointed nails.
When I saw the dark figure, I began trembling with fear, and my eyes remained fixed on it. After a few seconds of staring at it, the figure rose from its chair and started walking towards me. At that point, I began sweating, and all the strength I had disappeared. I felt stuck on the chair, with no strength to run away or fight back.
The figure walked to where I was seated and stood right before me. It then put its hands on my knees, bent down slightly, and looked straight into my eyes. In that moment, I began praying in tongues out of nowhere and woke up in the process.
The shock of the dream made me jump out of bed, and I continued praying in tongues with all the vigor I could muster. The room I was sleeping in was dark, but I didn’t have time to switch on the lights. It felt as if the dark figure was right there in my room, and the only way to be safe was to pray in tongues.
I prayed in tongues that morning like never before. After about 45 minutes of intense praying in tongues, I switched on the lights. Only then did I feel at peace, and the evil presence I was sensing disappeared.
I didn’t know where the vigor to pray in tongues came from, but I knew God had answered my prayer in a spectacular way. I wanted a reason to pray in tongues, and God did not disappoint.
After that, I repented for not having taken seriously the initial prompt to pray in tongues after God woke me up. That incident made me cautious about asking God to give me a reason to pray, and whenever I felt discouraged, I would remember that experience and push myself to pray.
So why did I share this story? Well, it’s because there is a lesson to draw from it.
The big lesson
Whenever you feel too tired to pray in tongues, whether it is mental or physical fatigue, if the reason to pray is strong, you will pray. Secondly, even if your environment is limiting, if you have a strong reason to pray in tongues, you will still pray.
However, you should never wait until extreme circumstances push you to pray in tongues. God desires that we pray in tongues out of our own will, not because circumstances force us.
Therefore, any time you are feeling tired to pray in tongues, use the following steps:
1. Reflection
First, reflect on the goodness of God in your life. Think of the love God has for you based on what He has done for you.
The primary reason that should motivate us to pray and fellowship with God is His love for us. It is true that we easily forget the magnitude of God’s love towards us, but that should never be an excuse for us.
Once you are aware of how much God loves you, you will naturally gain the desire to pray, regardless of your circumstances.
2. Cultivating a godly environment
Secondly, avoid spending too much time in secular environments. Exposure to such environments can dampen your spiritual sensitivity and weaken your desire to pray in tongues.
The Bible confirms this in 2 Timothy 2:16, which says, ‘Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly.’
Godless chatter includes ungodly things you watch or listen to online. If you cut out such influences, you will never struggle to pray in tongues.
3. Persistence
Lastly, learn to be persistent when you pray in tongues.
Sometimes, the only way to overcome the fatigue of praying in tongues is through discipline. Use your willpower to start, and as you continue, the Holy Spirit will make it easier for you as you progress.
I hope this has been helpful. God bless you.
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