When you don't know what to pray

Some mornings start when your eyes flicker open to a warm sun through the window and thoughts jump to the exciting possibilities of the day. Other mornings begin when your eyes are pried forcefully open to the abrasive sound of an alarm and thoughts of the challenges ahead bombard the peaceful morning hours. Your shaky feet hit the floor and drag into the shower. The steam helps clear the heavy sleep haze. Prayer? Yes! Good idea. But then then there are no words, no clear thoughts to define the overall uneasiness holding back your heart. Panic sets in as you try with all your might to muster up the right combination of words to express what you need. You then realize you don't even know what it is that you need, you just need help. You need to be heard. You need to know you're not alone.

"...the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit..." Rom. 8:26-27 

When you don't know what to pray, remember who it is that you seek. Say His name. Not only do you pray to a Diety, an all-knowing, powerful, Almighty God, you come before a compassionate companion. One who knows you, who yearns to communicate with you. Even uttering the name of Jesus acknowledges that you understand that you are limited and He is able. He delights in hearing His name on the lips of those He loves and is eager to listen. Invite Him into your tangled mess of thoughts. Say His name. 

When you don't know what to pray, cry out. Say what you feel. Allow the current of emotions to pour out of you and don't worry about what it looks like. Your intercessor cares much more about a heart that is genuine than a polished, eloquent soliloquy. Hannah models this well in 1 Samuel 1 when she "cried and cried- inconsolably...her lips moved but no sound was heard". Even a priest could not understand the depth of her emotion, accusing her of drunkenness, but God was honored by her earnesty and granted the desire of her heart to be a mother. Just let it out. Don't worry about holding it all in. Your feelings don't scare your Father. The Spirit interprets the aching groans and translates to God the Father, while knowing the mind of God. Cry out. 

When you don't know what to pray, go back to the basics. Tell Him what you know is true about His character and what His Word says about you. Stating the truth reaffirms what you believe and solidifies trust. If you don't know where to start, pray Scripture, those God-breathed, truth-filled, living words. Tell Him that you believe that He's God. That He is able to make all things work together for the good of those who love Him (Rom. 8:28). That there is nothing that can separate you from His love (Rom. 8:38). That you are created purposefully and intimately known (Psalm 139). That if you cast your anxieties on Him, He cares and will sustain. (1 Peter 5:7). And say these things with thankfulness. A grateful perspective is the hearty antidote for any kind of bitter, melancholic, resentful, anxious mood. These reminders seem so simple, but maybe it is the simple things that unclutter the complicated ways of the heart. Go back to the basics. 

On those mornings, those shaky weak-hearted mornings when you don't know what to pray, here's a few good places to start. What a relief to know that prayer is not as much a recipe as it is an open dialogue. An invitation to come without walls, to shake your fist at perfection, to express and receive, to be heard. All because of the loving, all-knowing heart of your Intercessor. 

"If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?...Christ Jesus, who died- more than that, who was raised to life- is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us."

 Rom. 8: 31-34