Crying Out in Prayer (When ONLY GOD Can Help)
Prayer always captures the attention of our God.
Have you ever been through a difficult time where your circumstances and situation appeared hopeless?
More than walking through a rough patch or a couple of bad situations, I’m referring to times when we’re keenly aware that we lack the ability AND resources to help ourselves.
Nor is there anyone in our contact list able to provide the help we need.
Our natural response when faced with immense times of trouble that appear hopeless is to figure out a way to “fix” the issue at hand on our own.
We conjure up a blueprint we think will provide the help we need and then busy ourselves executing that plan!
Often it’s not until AFTER we’ve exhausted our resources and come to the end of ourselves that we’re hit with the gravity of our need and the desperation of our hearts.
When we come to the end of our own efforts and agendas and we’re ready to allow our knees to hit the ground in humble recognition that God is our only hope, then in that posture of surrender, we cry out,
“O Lord, I need your help.”
God knows our every need and desire
Our Father God is so intimately acquainted with us that He knows what we need before we tell Him.
- We don’t pray to tell Him what we need – He already knows.
- We don’t pray to inform Him of how He should act – He’s the One who holds the perfectly orchestrated plan for our life – not us.
- We don’t pray to place our demands before Him – who are we that we make demands of our God as though He were our bellboy in heaven?
We pray because our God loves us fiercely and He wants to tend to our hearts and needs – as only He is able.
We pray because He invites us to come to Him… not from a distance, but up close and personal.
Thankfully we serve a God who deals with us in personal, intimate ways.
We pray to draw close to Him, yield to His authority, and surrender to Him in such a way that enables us to walk in step with His Spirit.
We pray to bring ourselves in a posture of humility before our holy God and ask Him to move mightily in our life and surrender to His Lordship.
His will.
His way.
His plan.
For His glory, and this is only possible through the enabling of the Holy Spirit.
Satan will tempt us to believe that being in a place of full surrender is giving up and a sign of weakness when just the opposite is true.
There is great power in the powerful prayer of surrender to our sovereign God.
Satan knows that, too…
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God knows the heart of our crying prayer
Sometimes when we’re hurting so deeply we lack the ability to even string together a cohesive, understandable sentence.
In those moments, we can take comfort in knowing God knows every detail of our pain.
He also knows your heart and what you need to be healed and whole in Him.
There have been times I was physically unable to read the words in my Bible due to the tears welling in my eyes in the middle of a cry.
More than my tears making it impossible to see, my strong emotions and frame of mind didn’t allow me to even pray.
In those moments of anguish, I know the prayer of my tears is acceptable to my loving God.
Unable to do anything else, I clutched the Word of God into my chest and clung onto it for dear life.
Literally… I slept while hugging my Bible that night.
I can remember saying, Lord even though I’m unable to physically read your Word I’m clinging onto it and declaring to you I do believe you are my only hope, and I need you desperately now.
I recently saw a meme on social media that was simply a piece of paper with the words, “Dear God, That is all. Amen.”
In the middle of that paper after the words, “Dear God,” was the mark from one big teardrop.
Did you know the Bible tells us that God knows the number of our tears and even collects them in a bottle?
“You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?” (Psalm 56:8 ESV)
I find comfort in knowing He has a bottle specifically for my tears.
Your tears, too.
He not only knows the reason behind your emotional tears that have fallen down your cheeks, but He also knows the depth of the pain and the wake of destruction it brought into your life.
Not only does He know, but He cares.
I can remember going through a difficult season when I continually repeated this phrase over and over:
God I know you see me. God I know you hear me. God I know you care.
In times of extreme peril, we don’t need to read a book on theology or dive into deep teaching; we need to lean into brass tack simple truths and cling to our Savior as we cry out to Him to tend to our hurting hearts as only He is able.
God welcomes and encourages raw honesty in our prayers.
No need to clean up our act before we go to Him.
No need to present a perfectly polished prayer.
No need to rehearse what you’re going to say.
He welcomes us to come as we are. Even if that means ugly crying. Our intense emotions don’t intimidate Him. He’s big enough and He is worthy to entrust our hearts into His care.
He invites us:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy burdened, and I will give you rest” (Mt. 11:28)
Jesus and the Holy Spirit are praying for God’s people
In our time of need, there is comfort in knowing the Holy Spirit and Jesus offers prayer on our behalf.
“In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” Romans 8:26-27
What glorious comfort in knowing the Holy Spirit intercedes for God’s people – according to the will of God!
“Who is he that condemns? 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.” (Romans 8:34.)
We serve ourselves well to remind ourselves that our Lord Jesus Christ is interceding for us, at the right hand of our Father God.
We serve a God who is alive.
He loves you fiercely, He is intimately acquainted with you, and He is praying for you…
I remember my mentor, Wilda, used to tell me in her times of desperation when she would come to the end of herself and was clueless regarding how she should pray she’d say to me, “Jesus Himself is praying for me, Honey. I don’t have to worry about telling Him what I need, He already knows, and He’s praying for me about it!”
She’d often apply this precept to me when I’d turn to her for words of wisdom, guidance, and comfort.
“Don’t forget, Jesus Himself is praying for you, Honey… JESUS is praying for YOU” She’d reiterate, as though she were telling it to me for the first time… every single time she said these words.
Her words reverberate deep within me, and it’s almost as if I can hear her saying them with conviction and passion.
I don’t think about this enough. Truth be told, I needed this reminder today, how about you?
JESUS Himself is praying for YOU today, my friend!
A Biblical Perspective is Key to Peace During Impossible Situations
God is a God of the impossible.
Cover to cover, our Bibles are full of examples testifying to this truth.
Allow me to quote one of my favorites, Charles Swindoll, on this topic:
The best framework for the Lord God to do His most ideal work is when things are absolutely impossible and we feel totally unqualified to handle it.
That’s His favorite circumstance. Those are his ideal working conditions.
God does His most magnificent work when the situation seems totally impossible from a human point of view, and we feel absolutely unprepared to do anythingabout it, yet our eyes are on Him… That’s when God rolls up His big sleeves and says, “Step back out of the way a moment, and watch me work.” Time after time, He brings us to our absolute end and then proves Himself faithful.
That, my friend, if the story of the Bible in a nutshell.
Isn’t that just awesome?!
Man, I love that guy…
A personal example from a time in my life when I cried out to God in prayer
From the time I was a young girl, the cry of my heart was to be a wife and mom.
When pregnancy didn’t happen when Joe and I hoped it would, we began a long road of circumstances that truly seemed impossible as we sought infertility treatment.
That was a very difficult season in my life.
We were elated when we received the good news of our first pregnancy! I immediately fell to my knees, thanked God, and dedicated this precious life to the Lord. My dream came true on that great day.
15 weeks into my pregnancy I began to bleed profusely and had contractions every five minutes.
I was a labor and delivery nurse at the time, so we raced to the unit.
80% of the sac that enclosed the baby separated from the uterine wall, leaving it attached by 20%. The doctor described it as “flapping away”.
There was not one medical professional in the unit who thought my baby had a chance.
The first doctor we saw was the high-risk doctor on our unit. I knew him well from working alongside him; he took one long look at my husband and then looked at me and said, “I’m sorry, Jen. You’re going to spontaneously abort this baby and there is nothing we can do. We’re just going to send you home to wait for that.”
Thankfully, my attending physician respectfully disagreed with that course of action. He said the only way he would send me home is if he did all he could do to try and save the baby.
I was admitted, IV fluids were started, and I was not to get out of bed for any reason.
I continued to bleed and contract all night.
I was devastated and filled with deep sorrow.
I remember laying in bed saying, “Lord what on Earth are you doing here? We finally got pregnant… this was supposed to be the “downhill” part of this struggle!
To everyone’s amazement, the baby survived to the morning, and my bleeding and contractions decreased in severity and frequency.
3 days later I was discharged home on complete bed rest. I could not go up steps or lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk.
My discharge orders were full of doctor’s orders and my heart was full of anxiety and fear.
I felt as though I was walking on eggshells.
Statistics were not in my favor.
With every passing day, I knew exactly what the baby’s gestational age was, and the implications if I went into preterm labor at that specific gestation.
All possible medical interventions were taken. All precautions were in place. I followed the doctor’s instructions to the letter, but I knew – the Lord would have the last say on how this turned out.
Our Church was an awesome support to us during this time, and I humbly asked every willing prayer group, prayer chain, and praying person I could think of to please pray for me and my baby.
I still remember sensing the Lord saying to me, “Do I have your attention now? Are you ready to do business with me?”
It was one of those moments where I had no place to look but to HIM.
And while the prayers of others are so important and precious and appreciated, there is no substitute for YOU doing business with the LORD.
The Lord seized my attention and used the next 6 months of bed rest to draw me closer to Him than ever before.
I also learned a new level of surrender during that timeframe… surrender as a mom.
It’s one thing to surrender our wants, dreams, aspirations, and plans, but a whole new level of surrender comes into play when it comes to your child.
I continued to bleed for the remaining 6 months of my pregnancy and remained on strict bedrest for the duration of that time. Our big day out was to go to the doctor for my weekly appointment and then through a drive-thru for dinner to take home!
I’m extremely thankful to tell you that our oldest son was born healthy and at term.
My doctor named him “the miracle baby” in the unit as everyone rejoiced in this new life that no one thought had a chance of survival 6 months earlier.
The literal meaning of Matthew is “Gift from God”; extremely appropriate as we know full well he is God’s gift.
Prayer when facing a desperate need
Whatever need you face today, it is the prayer of my heart that God’s grace will meet you and His unfailing love will overwhelm you.
I’d be honored to pray with you today. I also encourage you to open God’s Word and allow Him to minister to you as only He is able.
Dear Heavenly Father, We come before you knowing that you are sovereign and declaring that you are Holy. We humble ourselves before you O God and humbly ask that you would move mightily in the situations and circumstances of our life that are impossible in our own estimation. We need your intervention and we cry out to you asking for you to move for our good and your glory. Do what only you can do, Lord, and in the process would you draw us closer to yourself? Reveal yourself to us and transform our minds, hearts, and lives for your glory. In Jesus name we pray, Amen
I also welcome you to email me with any specific prayer requests you may have. There is a prayer team in place who will commit to praying for you.
Jen (at) anchoredandassured (dot) com
Crying Prayer: God sees every tear and hears every prayer
Related Posts to Crying Prayer:
Trusting God in Difficult Times
FREE Bible Study Lesson on Prayer for Adults
Bible Verses when Healing from Trauma
When You Struggle With Doubt and Disbelief
Bible Verses to Overcome Insecurity in Relationships
This study is so timely as we are praying for a woman from our church who suffered a head injury on vacation and needs a miracle to survive. Thank you Jesus for helping us through impossible situations.