Finding Strength in God in Prayer During Hard Times

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Times are tough. You’re struggling and don’t know what to do. It’s easy to feel like you’re all alone when you’re going through a hard time. You may feel like you’re the only one that’s ever felt this way. But God is with you during your hard times. He cares about you and wants to help you through everything that you’re going through. Finding strength in God is possible through prayer.

Prayer is a powerful tool that can connect you with Him and give you the strength to get through anything.

Many people turn to God more when they go through difficult times. When things go wrong, they draw closer to the source of all comfort and lean on Him more.

Many people actually find God to begin with when they go through traumatic life experiences. But what about people, like me, who find it difficult to pray when we go through tough times?

Let’s examine this further and see how we can turn to God more when we experience difficulties!

Finding Strength in God by Praying For Help Instead of Running Away

I am an introvert by nature and I believe that is part of why I go through an emotional shutdown, even from God, when I go through trials.

Throughout my life, especially in my past relationships, I learned to bottle up my feelings when I encountered a difficult situation and I would rely on myself because I couldn’t rely on anyone else.

That is just my own experience in life and something I hadn’t quite let go of. I admit it’s been a great stronghold of my life.

This sense of “wallowing” (for lack of a better word) carried over into my relationship with God.

It showed little faith in the promises of God and little of the peace of God in times of trouble because I thought I could best handle things rather than seek out the Lord’s help.

I can easily experience that emotional shut down when I go through a trauma of any kind, even when it is not severe. Instead of finding strength in God, I will often find myself giving in to this fight or flight response in a time of trouble if I am not careful.

Rather than praying for help in these specific situations and running to the War Room, I would sink into my own bubble and isolate myself from God and from others.

I needed to find a way to pray for God’s help at a time when praying seemed to be the LAST thing I FELT like doing!

I am an introvert by nature and I believe that is part of why I withdraw even from God when I go through trials. Share on X

Finding Strength in God Instead of Our Own Strength

When life happens, finding strength in God can easily be something we miss!

Stressors happen and it becomes so easy to hyper-focus on them and then they become great distress.

It definitely makes me look back on a really trying time in my own life!

First, we had been trying to buy a home and each and every time we entered into a contract, the home was found to be far worse upon our inspection than we anticipated.

It had been costly, since each time we had to pay for the inspection just to find out we wouldn’t be moving forward. Each house was worse than the last time.

In the midst of all of this, I developed viral pinkeye, and three weeks and two prescriptions later it had not only not gone away, but the virus spread to other organs and I developed pleurisy.

I ended up at the ER with chest pains.

Then three nights later, we began hearing a noise within the wall on our staircase to our second floor.

It got louder and more frequent. It was so loud in fact that it sounded like something was actually running up and down our stairs.

After inspection by our pest control service, we found that we had a mouse (or mice) in the wall

They treated the crawl space under the house but said it could take up to a week to be rid of them (thankfully they were only in the wall and under the house and there was no sign of them inside THAT time…this girl doesn’t do rodents!!).

Well, this may seem trivial and some may think there are far more important things to be concerned about but I have anxiety AND I was doing respite foster care at the time.

So I was already having a tough time having 2 children in the house who we were trying to get to sleep and who just were NOT having it.

Then waking up at 3 am to what sounded like a large raccoon bounding down our steps into the kitchen is just a major “trigger” that caused me to feel panicked.

It sounded far worse than it was! As I said, it sounded like it was in the house itself!

It was not this one isolated issue though.

This was the culmination of all the stressors that had been going on. I felt as though I no longer had a sound mind in the way scripture describes.

Anyone who has experienced trials of many kinds over and over, piling on top of each other will definitely understand this feeling.

Finding Strength in God When You’re Too Weak to Pray

Now I tell you all this, not to complain! My problems are relatively minor, believe me.

I tell you this because, for people like me with anxiety or people who tend to be introverted, it is difficult to get outside yourself and unfold, finding it difficult to pray!

I fall back on old habits of bottling up and feeling like I cannot go to God or enter God’s presence in that state. I felt too weak, as though somehow God needed ME to be strong before I went to Him. I was leaning on my own strength!

I was making the strength of my heart MY issue rather than turning to Him to help me find strength.

But God’s word says in Romans 8:26:

Similarly, the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we don’t know how to pray the way we should. But the Spirit himself pleads on our behalf with groanings too deep for words;

CJB

God’s word acknowledges there WILL be times when we are so weak that we need to fall upon the intercession of the Spirit!

Finding strength in the Lord often means finding peace with our own weakness and leaning on Him alone.

Imagine that – our inner strength can often be when we allow ourselves to be weak!

We tend to think of prayer as sitting and telling Hashem our needs or carrying the needs of others to Him.

But the best part of prayer is also just sometimes coming and falling apart before Him and letting the Spirit do the carrying for us.

Finding strength in God doesn’t mean WE are strong. It means that our strength is found in leaning on Him, the One who controls the wind and waves!

God supplies our strength but we need to seek Him for it!

It is perfectly OK for me to just stand at the Mercy Seat and say “I’ve got nothing in me. I need you” and He hears and answers!

The sovereign Lord WANTS you to come to Him even when you’re finding it difficult to pray, or even speak a word! God’s strength is sufficient in our weakness!

Your trials, problems, concerns…they are no surprise to your Heavenly Father. He knows what you have need of even before you ask!

Matthew 6:8 says:

Don’t be like them, because your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

CJB

We tend to think of prayer as sitting and telling God our needs or carrying the needs of others to Him. But prayer is also just sometimes coming and falling apart before Him and letting the Spirit do the carrying for us! Share on X

Cry Out to Jesus

Finding strength in God begins with a cry out to Him!

He already knows what you are going through. He knows how distraught you might feel, the low point you are at. And He can sympathize with you and our loving God knows what is on your heart and He knows your particular need!

Hebrews 4:15 says:

For we do not have a kohen gadol who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all the same ways—yet without sin.

TLV

Yeshua is our high priest, our kohen gadol in the Order of Melchizedek! He knows our weaknesses! Whether our weakness is with regards to temptation or our weakness is with regards to our trials, He gets you!

Don’t feel as though your prayer time needs to be eloquent or even vocal!

Go to Him and just BE in His comforting presence and allow the Spirit, the Ruach HaKodesh to make intercession for you! There is great power in just sitting in His presence!!

As a parent, sometimes our children go through hurtful experiences and maybe don’t want to talk! Sometimes they just need to be held.

Like them, as little children sometimes we just need our Abba, Father God, to hold us! Words are not required! He is our ever present help in times of need. (Psalm 46:1)

Finding strength in God is possible in your weakness because it is in our weakness He is shown to be strong!

It is then that our heart trusts in Him. He can do more for me in my trials than I or any other person can do! With Him, we need not have a spirit of fear but of power and love and a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)

Be of good cheer and just cry out to Jesus!

God’s promises are always true!

He already knows what you are going through. He knows how distraught you might feel. And He can sympathize with you and knows what is on your heart Share on X

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CJB – Taken from the Complete Jewish Bible by David H. Stern. Copyright © 1998. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Messianic Jewish Publishers, 6120 Day Long Lane, Clarksville, MD 21029. www.messianicjewish.net.

Tree of Life (TLV) – Scripture taken from the Holy Scriptures, Tree of Life Version*. Copyright © 2014,2016 by the Tree of Life Bible Society.  Used by permission of the Tree of Life Bible Society.

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