Praying Without Words

Praying Without Words

It’s pretty easy to thank God when everything’s going well in your life. When you feel good. When you have your health.

It’s a lot harder to praise Him when things—sometimes most things—are not going well. Before I was diagnosed with cancer, I always enjoyed singing in worship, praising God and thanking Him for all my wonderful blessings. Prayers came easily to my lips, especially prayers of thanksgiving, because I had a lot for which to be thankful. In fact, if you had told me there would come a time in my life when I wouldn’t be able to pray, I would have laughed at the suggestion and insisted it could never happen.

But it did.

In those first dark days after my diagnosis, I literally couldn’t pray. When I would read my Bible and then try to pray, the words simply would not form. Instead, tears rolled down my cheeks, sometimes just a trickle and sometimes turning into heavy sobs. The only thing I felt like I wanted to pray was a desperate cry for healing. What else was there to say?

And then I read a verse in the Bible—one I’m sure I’d read many times before, but it never had seemed that significant:

The Holy Spirit helps us in our distress. For we don’t even know what we should pray for, nor how we should pray. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.

Romans 8:26-27

Two wonderful verses about how to pray when you feel you can’t pray. They were right there in the Bible, sandwiched between Paul’s discussion of suffering and his explanation of how we can be victorious even in difficult times! (Read the whole chapter and you’ll see what I mean.)

It was okay that I felt I couldn’t pray. The Holy Spirit would pray for me. He would take my “groans” that were too deep for words right to God Himself. And even better than that, the Spirit would know what to pray for me. He would pray according to God’s will. I love how The Message renders Romans 8:26:

If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans.

That’s one amazing God! He knows that at the times we need Him most, we may not be able to express ourselves to Him, so He has His own Spirit do it for us! After I found that verse, I would often just sit, my hands on my lap, palms toward heaven, tears rolling down my cheeks . . . praying.

I never said a word. I couldn’t even form cohesive thoughts in my mind, but I prayed. I didn’t worry what or how to pray. I simply allowed God’s Spirit to take my innermost thoughts, my deepest fears to God and pray for me.

In time I was able to pray again myself, but sometimes even now I still practice the kind of prayer I learned when I had no other way to pray.

Another amazing thing I learned about prayer during my cancer ordeal is that God has given us prayers we can pray when the pain is too deep.

I spent the entire six months of my chemo in the book of Psalms. I don’t think I opened my Bible up anywhere except to the middle, where my eyes would fall upon a psalm that expressed my need to God.

I remember one day telling my husband how much the Psalms were blessing me as I dealt with the struggles of chemo treatments.

My surprised husband reminded me that in years past I had commented that those who wrote the sorrowful psalms seemed to be “a bunch of whiners.”

“Well, now I’m a whiner too!” I explained.

It was true. For the first thirty-six years of my life, I had it really easy. A wonderful, loving home growing up; a good education; a great marriage; super children—nothing to whine about. Life had been so good that I had never needed God the way I did after I found out I had cancer.

Quite the contrary, the psalmists had plenty of trouble in their lives, plenty of times they desperately needed God’s help. So I read the Psalms. Day and night I read the Psalms as my prayers to God.

In you, LORD my God, I put my trust.

Psalm 25:1-2, NIV

I am worn out waiting for your rescue,

but I have put my hope in your word.

Psalm 119:81

However you pray, your prayers are reaching the Father’s ears. The Scriptures tell us that in Heaven there are “gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God’s people” (Revelation 5:8; 8:3-4). Your prayer is a sweet fragrance to God. Here’s one more from Psalm 119:116 you could pray today:

LORD, sustain me as you promised, that I may live! Do not let my hope be crushed. Amen.

(Just in case you don’t have a Bible handy, I’ve included some of my favorite psalm prayers in appendix 6 (see below). Go ahead and fill up another bowlful in Heaven!)

Psalm Prayers

For “whiners” like me and anyone else wanting to cry out to God. Whenever I came to the word enemy or enemies, I substituted cancer because it was my biggest enemy!

O LORD, how long will you forget me? Forever?

How long will you look the other way?

How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul,

with sorrow in my heart every day?

How long will my enemy have the upper hand?

Turn and answer me, O LORD my God!

Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die.

Don’t let my enemies gloat, saying, “We have defeated him!”

Don’t let them rejoice at my downfall.

But I trust in your unfailing love.

I will rejoice because you have rescued me.

I will sing to the LORD

because he is good to me.

Psalm 13

LORD, hear my prayer!

Listen to my plea!

Don’t turn away from me

in my time of distress.

Bend down to listen,

and answer me quickly when I call to you.

For my days disappear like smoke,

and my bones burn like red-hot coals.

My heart is sick, withered like grass,

and I have lost my appetite.

Because of my groaning,

I am reduced to skin and bones. . . .

He broke my strength in midlife,

cutting short my days.

But I cried to him, “O my God, who lives forever,

don’t take my life while I am so young!

Psalm 102:1-5, 23-24

Save me, O God,

for the floodwaters are up to my neck.

Deeper and deeper I sink into the mire;

I can’t find a foothold.

I am in deep water,

and the floods overwhelm me.

I am exhausted from crying for help;

my throat is parched.

My eyes are swollen with weeping,

waiting for my God to help me. . . .

Answer my prayers, O LORD,

for your unfailing love is wonderful.

Take care of me,

for your mercy is so plentiful.

Don’t hide from your servant;

answer me quickly, for I am in deep trouble!

Come and redeem me;

free me from my enemies.

Psalm 69:1-3, 16-18

Bend down, O LORD, and hear my prayer;

answer me, for I need your help.

Protect me, for I am devoted to you.

Save me, for I serve you and trust you.

You are my God.

Be merciful to me, O Lord,

for I am calling on you constantly.

Give me happiness, O Lord,

for I give myself to you.

O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive,

so full of unfailing love for all who ask for your help.

Listen closely to my prayer, O LORD;

hear my urgent cry.

I will call to you whenever I’m in trouble,

and you will answer me.

Psalm 86:1-7

I cry out to the LORD;

I plead for the LORD’s mercy.

I pour out my complaints before him

and tell him all my troubles.

When I am overwhelmed,

you alone know the way I should turn.

Wherever I go,

my enemies have set traps for me.

I look for someone to come and help me,

but no one gives me a passing thought!

No one will help me;

no one cares a bit what happens to me.

Then I pray to you, O LORD.

I say, “You are my place of refuge.

You are all I really want in life.”

Psalm 142:1-5

The LORD is my light and my salvation—

so why should I be afraid?

The LORD is my fortress, protecting me from danger,

so why should I tremble?

When evil people come to devour me,

when my enemies and foes attack me,

they will stumble and fall.

Though a mighty army surrounds me,

my heart will not be afraid.

Even if I am attacked,

I will remain confident.

The one thing I ask of the LORD—

the thing I seek most—

is to live in the house of the LORD all the days of my life,

delighting in the LORD’s perfections

and meditating in his Temple.

Psalm 27:1-4

I love you, LORD;

you are my strength.

The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my savior;

my God is my rock, in whom I find protection.

He is my shield, the power that saves me,

and my place of safety.

I called on the LORD, who is worthy of praise,

and he saved me from my enemies.

The ropes of death entangled me;

floods of destruction swept over me.

The grave wrapped its ropes around me;

death laid a trap in my path.

But in my distress I cried out to the LORD;

yes, I prayed to my God for help.

He heard me from his sanctuary;

my cry to him reached his ears.

Psalm 18:1-6

I look up to the mountains—

does my help come from there?

My help comes from the LORD,

who made heaven and earth!

He will not let you stumble;

the one who watches over you will not slumber.

Indeed, he who watches over Israel

never slumbers or sleeps.

The LORD himself watches over you!

The LORD stands beside you as your protective shade.

The sun will not harm you by day,

nor the moon at night.

The LORD keeps you from all harm

and watches over your life.

The LORD keeps watch over you as you come and go,

both now and forever.

Psalm 121