Praying when you don’t know what to pray

A few years ago life was hard. Not in the dramatic, life-threatening illness kind of way (we were past that season) but in the nothing-is-going-smoothly sort of way. Church was hard. Marriage was hard. Family was hard. Parenting was hard.

During that time, I wasn’t always sure what to pray. In fact, some days I just didn’t know what to pray at all. I wasn’t depressed, angry or hurt; I was really more weary than anything else.

I’m guessing you know exactly what I’m talking about. We all go through those seasons when life isn’t terrible but isn’t easy either. The bumps in the road are just enough to keep us off balance.

My quiet time was flat – and if I was the sort of girl who wanted to feel something every time I read Scripture, I probably would have given up on it. I wasn’t sure what to pray because the things in my life that were hard weren’t really hard compared to other people’s situations. But I needed words for how I was feeling and what was going on both inside me and around me in my life.

It was during that season about five years ago that I really began to pray Scripture with intentionality. I’d often used Scripture as a foundation for my prayers, but that hard season is what made it into a purposeful and daily practice for me.

I was reading through the Psalms at the time and, almost without fail, the words I was reading echoed the way I was feeling. I began reading and then praying through the passages, personalizing them for my situation. And while life didn’t get any easier, I found my prayer life was strengthened, and my desire to be in the Word returned.

I started sharing the “verses to pray” series on my website out of those hard months and my experience in them. I’d seen the way praying Scripture had changed me, and I wanted others to know that same power.

Praying Scripture isn’t about being super spiritual – for me, it came from being spiritually depleted. I couldn’t form prayers, so God’s Word did it for me. Now it’s become such a habit in my life, I can’t imagine trying to pray without grounding my words in the Word.

Maybe you’re not sure what to pray. Maybe it all feels weird to you, or maybe you think you don’t know how to pray. Praying Scripture can be the starting point for overcoming any of those things.

If you aren’t sure where to start, you can check out the 31 Verses to Pray for Your Girl series or either of the 31 Verses to Pray for Your Marriage (Old Testament and New Testament) series on my website, terilynneunderwood.com. Or, do what I did – read the Psalms and start personalizing them.