7 Prayers That Work

  "Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!" Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it and will glorify it again." ( John 12:27-28) Oh, God, I'm really sad . I feel overwhelmed . It's not any one thing-- I just feel a heavy weight of so many concerns , fears, and disappointments. I feel lost. Although you always knew your purpose on earth, and you always knew how things would end, you were sad, too. Maybe the knowing is worse than the not-knowing? You knew the enormity of your calling. But what if I'm not sure of mine? What if I've gotten off track? What if I've ruined everything? Please take my sadness away-- I'll try to give it to you. I know you can transform it into something beautiful and worthy, something life-giving. Hear me, Lord. Wipe my tears. Hold my heart . Wrap me in your comforting arms. ...

What kind of prayer do you pray most often? Requests, probably. Me, too. Requests    are my website's most-clicked on kind of prayer. It seems we're all looking for the right way to ask God to help us. Guess what the second-most popular prayer is? Lamentation. The lament. I love that. I have an audience of grievers and groaners. Praise God. Learning to lament has been one of the most impactful aspects of my spiritual growth. Instead of crying in sorrow, lamenting teaches you to cry out to God (that's the literal meaning of lament). Lamentation is faith in action, maybe even more than when I make a request. When I lament, I dump my heavy burdens, my grief, and my hopelessness at God's feet and say something like, "I don't know what you're doing in my life right now, but help me trust you. I choose to believe you will work all things together for my good. But oh, God, this hurts so much. Cover me with your Spirit!" When I make a req...

This morning I had one of those mothering moments when you ask your child to trust your "no" because you are building character into him so he can become the man God wants him to be. Then I say that someday, he'll realize how much it mattered to have a mom who cared about these things. Then I think about my mom and how I never realized the extent of her wisdom and love until I became a mother. And how much I wish I could tell her that again right now. How I wish I could tell her anything at all, and how completely devastating it is to know I won't speak to her again in my lifetime. The realization returns , almost like the first time it hit me. And I have cried off and on all day ever since. Grief sucks like that. How can there still be so many unseen empty spaces that hold grief? God, Would you just fill them, please? Would you just pour yourself into the holes of longing and loss and smother the grief with joy and contentment. Will you hear this ...

Dear Lord God Jehovah, I'm having a heavy heart kind of day. I've been remembering sad things, things that make me feel disappointed and hopeless. I want to crawl into a corner and shut out life. That's where You come in. You've showed up many times during my life when the joy of living has vanished and memories haunt. And You feel what I feel, at the moment when I feel it. Even though I feel alone, You are with me. I must remember who You are and what You do-- what You have always done for me. You fill me with unexplainable comfort. You cradle my heart with warm hands and soothe the heavy space inside that hurts. You're the reason I pray. I don't pray because I want answers. I pray because You are the only Answer. Thank you for doing Your work in me, through pain, through confusion, and through thanksgiving. Thank You for the memories of You. Amen.