How to Pray When You're Angry, Weary, or Worn Out
Turning emotion into intimacy with God
Prayer.
Talking to God.
Listening to God.
Waiting on God.
Prayer can be a struggle. It was for me. I would get so distracted. It didn’t matter where I was or what I wanted to talk to God about. I would suddenly find myself thinking about anything and everything except my conversation with Him.
Until I started journaling.
I began turning my prayer time into writing. I would take the Scripture I was reading that day and personalize it. I would insert my name, the names of others, and any situations as the passage guided me. Journaling helped me focus and remain focused.
But what about those times when even journaling doesn’t help?
What about the moments when you are weary, worn out, sad, frustrated, or angry? Really angry. Are you still talking to God then? You should be. I spent many seasons letting my emotions pull me away from prayer, convinced I was in no condition to speak to a holy God. But that is not what I find in His Word.
What about the moments when you are weary, worn out, sad, frustrated, or angry? Really angry. Are you still talking to God then? You should be.
Take a look at the Psalms. Pick almost any one written by David and you will find raw, unfiltered emotion. His emotions didn’t drive him from God. They brought him closer. Listen to the ache in Psalm 22:1-2 (TPT):
“God, my God, why would you abandon me now? Why do you remain distant, refusing to answer my tearful cries in the day, and my desperate cries for your help in the night? I can’t stop sobbing. Where are you, my God?”
Psalm 139 tells us God knows everything about us. Every thought. Every emotion. We are an open book to Him. There is nowhere we can go that He is not already there. So why not just tell Him how you feel? Say it out loud. Say it in the middle of your emotion. Whether you are weary, sad, frustrated, or fuming, He wants to hear you.
“You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.”
I remember one time when I was more than angry. I was fuming. I decided to tell God exactly how I felt. Pacing back and forth, I poured out every complaint. I didn’t hold anything back. I let it all out until there was nothing left but quiet. Then I waited.
A few days later, I sat in church next to my husband, the very person I had just prayed about. To my surprise, he took my hand and led me to the altar. There, he asked me to forgive him. This was not typical for us during conflict. God heard my honest and unfiltered prayer and moved in our situation. The result was peace.
But again I ask, what about the moments when you are too tired to write? When you are too weary to pray at all and the words just will not come?
That is when prayer might be just a phone call or a text away.
Galatians 6:2 encourages us to carry one another’s burdens. The Passion Translation says it this way: “Stooping down to help another.” I remember being deep in depression, unable to pray for myself. But I had a friend who carried me to God in prayer for many months. She was a safe friend. I could be completely myself with her, even in my sadness and struggle. One day, she gently asked me to pray. All I could say was, “Oh God.” But He heard me.
Prayer is just a phone call or text away.
First Peter 3:12 (TPT) says, “His heart responds to our prayers.” I know that my heart-aching cry reached His hearing ears.
Through it all, I have come to believe this: God does not waste anything. Romans 8:28-29 reminds us that He works and weaves every detail together for good. It is not all good, but He uses it all to shape us to look more like Jesus.
So keep asking. Keep seeking. Keep knocking, as Matthew 7:7 tells us. Whether you are journaling or not, whether the words come freely or only through tears, God wants to hear from you. And He wants you to hear from Him.
