4 Lies the devil will whisper to you during prayer

Here are four lies the enemy might whisper to you during worship services or during times of prayer.

1. You’re a Fake!

Maybe you’ve even had someone say this to your face. Perhaps you’ve thought of it while you’re trying to pray and maybe even had it come into your mind while you’re in worship services. If so, you are not alone. I hear this from a lot of different people from all around the world. The enemy would love nothing more than to have you live in fear, think you are really not saved, and believe you’re a hypocrite or a fake. Let me ask you this: If you weren’t saved, do you think the enemy would be wasting his time on you? No. He wants to plant seeds of doubt and rob your joy and thwart your evangelism.

2. God Doesn’t Hear You

This one is the feeling that our prayers are bouncing off the ceiling or that our worship is just going through the motions. What I have recognized over the years is the difference between human feelings and objective truth as found in the Bible, and one such truth is that “when the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles” (Psalm 34:17). Not only does God hear us, He delivers us “out of all [our] troubles” but may not give us a time frame. We must trust God that all things will work out for our best (Rom. 8:28) and not trust what we feel.

3. Keep your mouth Shut

What I mean here is that enemy wants you to feel so unworthy that you’d feel like the last Christian on earth to ever witness to anyone. Really, none of us are worthy. We all fall far short of God’s glory (Rom. 3:23), but that doesn’t mean we don’t share the Gospel because it has its own power to save (Rom. 1:16). But how will they know unless they hear it from you? Paul asks, “But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news” (Rom. 10:14-15). In prayer, pray for the lost. In services, pour out your gratitude to Christ. Determine in your heart to tell others! Our worthiness is wrapped up in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21).

4. Has God Really Said?

This tactic was what Satan used against Eve as he planted doubts about God and His Word (Gen. 3:1). You cannot separate God from His Word, but Satan tried to do just that. Satan planted doubts about God’s goodness and intent when he deceived Eve into taking and eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The enemy wants you to doubt His Word, the Bible, and that He exists with 100% assurance. If you start to have doubts, then you’ll pray less and worship will be harder. Maybe that’s why Jude wrote to “be merciful to those who doubt” (Jude 1:22) because the enemy might be causing them to doubt. Doubting God’s Word is doubting God.

Conclusion

If you’ve experienced times where you were not sure if you truly were a Christian, that God probably doesn’t hear you, or that you have no business witnessing to others and you start to have serious doubts about God, I hope you realize that this is not from God. God will convict you when you sin, but you’ll also confess it. However, doubt and fear are not from God. That leaves only one other possible source, and I don’t have to tell you who that is.