When You Feel Too Overwhelmed to Pray

Prayer. We know it is powerful. It gives us a direct audience with God the Father. So how come we can’t bring ourselves to do it sometimes?

Has this ever happened to you? Where you feel like you are drowning in the realities of the world around you? When the weight of this world shadows all hope and the weakness in your heart grows stronger than your faith? The moments when you take each step more from a place of fear than a place of faith? For the last couple of weeks, I have been experiencing this. I know what I need to do, but when it gets down to it, I am at a loss for words. I am weak, human, scared, and overwhelmed.

Am I alone in this? Has anyone else felt this struggle? Feeling already defeated, set back and powerless, even in prayer? I know this is a direct result of wanting this to be my year in prayer. Any good competitor would go directly for the weakness their opponent proclaimed. I know to expect spiritual attacks to come in this exact way.

While these emotions and feelings are strong, my God is bigger, stronger, and in control. I may be struggling to fight on my knees during this battle. But I am still in the ranks of the ONE who already won the war.

Why do I let myself be discouraged? I started to think about the times in the Bible when I imagine others have the same struggle. Who comes to your mind?

I thought of Nehemiah. I am certain he felt overwhelmed by the bad news that surrounded him. Nehemiah 1:4 says:

As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

Have you ever felt like this? So overwhelmed that you were moved to action?

As overwhelming as things are now, I can’t help but think about some other examples of people in the Bible who might have felt the same way.

The Israelites who were in bondage.
Moses as he stood and looked at the task God had asked him to perform.
David as he faced Goliath.
Jonah.
The disciples as the seas raged around them.
Paul who was imprisoned.

What can we learn from them?

What steps can we take today to return our focus to the one who is already victorious over whatever stands in our way?

1. We spend too much time thinking or talking about it with the wrong people–friends. We need to talk to God.

2. We don’t seek the Lord or call out to him. We forget who he is and what he can do.

3. We never actually ask him for deliverance. We ask him to change things, people, or feelings about the situation. He is capable to change the situation.

Being overwhelmed is like a wake-up call. A call to pray. The trumpet reminding us this is a battle and we need to be ready.

Are there things in your life that are making prayer a challenge for you?

What needs to change in your life or heart to help you call out to the Lord in your situation?

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Tamika R

I was born in Denver, Colorado. I moved to OKC after quitting my jobs as a teacher and YouthIntern to pursue the call into ministry. I started as a non traditional student at Oklahoma where I met my husband. He was a non traditional student working on a 2nd degree after moving from Poland to pursue a degree in Ministry. We dreamed together of serving the Lord in Europe. Now we are blessed to be witness to the awesome way that God works all over the world. We live in Vienna, Austria with our3 kids. We work with Eastern European Mission. We provide Bibles and ethics materials in native languages of Eastern Europe. That means we get to seeGod's hand and providence all over Europe. I am Publishing Assistant at EEM and a fitness trainer. I fill my days caring for my family, teaching gym classes and designing book covers and working on details to provide quality materials to those who need God's word. In my free time I paint, cook, make jewelry and run 2 blogs.