Scenario 19 — Feeling spiritually dry

Situation (full narrative)

Emily has been following Christ for years, and normally prayer is one of the places she finds the most peace.

Recently, though, prayer has started to feel strangely flat. She still sits down at the same times each day, but the conversations with God feel distant, like the words are just bouncing around the room.

She has wondered if it is just exhaustion. Work has been intense, and she has been helping care for a relative who has been dealing with health issues.

But sometimes when she tries to pray she also notices a quiet discouragement creeping in — the feeling that maybe her prayers are not really doing much.

She knows that thought is not something she wants to believe, but it keeps appearing in the background when she sits down to pray.

Training exercise

• Write the situation in one sentence focusing on the main problem being described.
• List the pressures the person is experiencing.
• Separate actual obstacles from emotional reactions to those obstacles.
• Identify whether the pressure seems organizational, relational, or internal.
• Choose one Authority card that establishes God over the circumstances.
• Choose one Identity card so the intercessor prays from stability rather than reaction.
• Choose one Situation card that best describes the conflict or pressure.
• State the prayer focus in one sentence.