When the Prayers Just Won’t Come

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Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:28

We all have seasons in life… times of peace and calm, and times when the wind blows hard. Sometimes life becomes so stormy it is hard to find the words to pray.

These are times when we turn to other believers to ask for help, for sustenance through prayers lifted up on our behalf.  God has also graciously equipped us directly through His Word.

Come to Him… come to His Word… and rest.

Years ago, a wise woman taught me to pray scripture word-for-word. One morning, in a bible study with other young mothers, she asked us to open our bibles to a particular scripture. She told us to pray it aloud together, personalizing it as we went.

Like this ….

For this reason I bow my knees before You Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of Your glory You may grant me to be strengthened with power through Your Spirit in my inner being, so that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith—that I, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that I may be filled with all the fullness of You, God.
Ephesians 3:14-19, personalization noted in italics

I was deeply moved by the power of praying scripture. I began to pray longer passages more often in my prayer time. I found it especially helpful in those seasons when life was so heavy that I struggled to pray.

You can personalize most passages of scripture, but if you are at a loss for where to start, open the Psalms. Psalm 42 is a direct prayer to God…

Psalm 42

As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
My tears have been my food
day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”
These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
a multitude keeping festival.

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.

My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
Deep calls to deep
at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
have gone over me.
By day the LORD commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.

I say to God, my rock:
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?”
As with a deadly wound in my bones,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.

You need not only pray the Word in troubled times. Any mother of a newborn will attest to the fact that sleep deprivation can sometimes make it challenging to think clearly to pray. Psalm 113 is a joyful prayer of praise…

Psalm 113

Praise you LORD!  I a servant of the LORD,
I praise your name LORD!

Blessed be your name LORD
from this time forth and forevermore!
From the rising of the sun to its setting,
your name LORD is to be praised!

LORD (you are) high above all nations,
and your glory above the heavens!
Who is like you LORD our God,
who is seated on high,
who looks far down
on the heavens and the earth?
You raise the poor from the dust
and lift the needy from the ash heap,
to make them sit with princes,
with the princes of his people.
You give the barren woman a home,
making her the joyous mother of children.

Praise you LORD!

(personalizations italicized)

Praying the scriptures can be beautiful and moving. It is a powerful way to keep us connected to our Heavenly Father when we feel weak. And even when the storms are stilled, praying God’s Word is a blessed spiritual discipline.