Seven Prayers When You Feel Broken

Seven Prayers When You Feel Broken

Our hearts are aching. We feel at a loss. We see the breaking and feel broken ourselves.

As difficult as that is…as scary as it is to feel so deeply such questioning…as much as we are filled with fear and longing for hope…we are not abandoned. We are not without hope. We are not alone or without resources to respond. We cannot be passive. We cannot just let time pass. Here are seven prayers, and each one of these can be daily actions as well.

Heavenly Father…

1. …help me be willing to grieve. To enter into the fearful place in my heart and to sit there – not alone, not overcome – but sit there with You, my Wonderful Counselor and seek Your wisdom. Help me repent of my laziness and self-serving views and be sorrowful for my dusty Bible and calloused heart. With you, Father I mourn with those who mourn. (Romans 12:15)
2. …I am willing to feel the pain – not just my own – but the pain of those crying out for justice, the pain of the most weary and most hurt, and in this anguish, I come to you, my Great Healer. Begin the healing in my heart. Strengthen me so I may be an agent of healing for others. (Psalm 30:2)
3. …show me your peace – not just that my heart would stop feeling such turmoil or that my own views would be heard, no, I desire true peace, the peace that can only come from You, my Prince of Peace. It is, the peace that sets up a guard around my nervous heart and sets me upon the Rock that is higher than the chaos surrounding me. (Philippians 4:7, Psalm 61:2)
4. …I need strength – not in my kind of strength because I’m so inconsistent and weak – I want the strength of my Mighty God who will rescue me. It is Your righteous right hand that will bring justice. Help me reject worldly peace and seek Your true strength today. (Psalm 18:32, Colossians 1:11, Philippians 4:13)
5. …I give you my tendency to want everything fixed now and remember that I am the child of an Everlasting Father and that the pain and fear I am enduring today is a light and momentary trouble. Help me take every thought captive so I do not lose heart. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18, 2 Corinthians 10:5)
6. …open my eyes to this spiritual battle. Instead of looking at the terrifying and disheartening scenes I want to look to the things that are unseen and put on spiritual armor – most importantly, prayer. (Ephesians 6:10-18)
7. …I repent for picking up my cause and placing it above Yours. I need the Holy Spirit fire that descended on those first disciples to consume me as well today. I want to be a true disciple. Help me deny myself, lay aside my cause, and pick up the cross again to follow Jesus. (Matthew 16:24, Acts 2:1-47)
   Amen.

Christians are not protected from grief or pain. It is ok to feel broken. Remember, calling ourselves “Christian” is not a category but a lifestyle and a worldview that embraces the truth of what it meant that “unto us a son was given” who came to be our “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace” and that only in repentance and submission to Him will we ever find true hope and peace.

God will meet you in your brokenness. God hears you in your questions. God does see you in your pain and doubt. Keep praying. He is at work bringing you the hope and healing you need.