HOW TO PRAY WHEN LIFE IS FALLING APART by Andrew Hess for Core Christianity
“Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” Psalm 50:15
These have been days of trouble for many of us. As one pastor recently put it, “It’s like we were all signed up for a marathon we didn’t want to run, and as we approach what looks like the finish line, we are told, ‘Just keep running!’”
For many, the global pandemic has seemed to spark a chain-reaction of difficulties. There have been collective challenges, like quarantines and closures, lost jobs and income. But unique challenges have also hit many of us as individuals, as married couples, and even as families. Pastors are particularly burdened, feeling the weight of the increased needs of the people under their care. In the past week, our family has received news of the death of four loved ones. It seems everyone is carrying something heavy right now.
In times like these, it can be hard to know how to pray. We know we should pray, that above all we need God’s help in these hard times. But if you’re like me, sometimes the words don’t come easily. We don’t know what to ask for or how we should approach God when our hearts are broken.
Here are four recommendations for ways to pray during particularly hard times.
1. Pray with humility.
When life seems to be falling apart, one of the hardest parts of praying is when God shows us the depths of our own need for him. We always need God’s help, but we aren’t always aware of how badly we need it. Troubles have a way of showing us how desperate we are for God to help us on a daily and hourly basis. And so, a wonderful prayer posture is to come before God and humbly admit we need his help and his mercy. To acknowledge we can’t make it on our own. To remind ourselves that “God is near to the brokenhearted” (Ps. 24:18). We need God to show up and see us through our hard seasons. God loves when his children come to him. He loves to meet our needs to be with us through the hardest seasons of life. As we humble ourselves before him, we will find him able and willing to meet us in our hard times.
