Three Actions To Take When You Feel Ill-Equipped To Pray

The blessing of prayer should be nurtured and exercised by all God’s children. 

Ill-Equipped

Confession time, I struggle with words. Sometimes they spill out a jumbled mess, leaving me feeling ill-equipped to properly express myself. 

It’s a bit ironic to admit since I’m an editor and writer, but when it comes to voicing a thought, I struggle with clarity. Explaining a situation unrehearsed often lacks focus. I find myself ending with, “well I hope you know what I mean.”

But where my jumbled mess of thoughts most bothers me is during prayer. Reminders and questions swirl in my head as I attempt to pray, and I find my conversation with God going something like this:

Dear Father in heaven, 

You are holy and all powerful. Thank you for your guidance in my life, for your wonderful blessings. (Forgot to plan for supper.) You are most gracious to me and my family. (Did I switch the laundry?) Thank you for Your provisions. (What time do I need to pick him up?)

Please, Lord, I ask You to strengthen my husband. Help Him to draw nearer to You, to tap into Your strength. (Rats, I forgot to stop in and visit Max again!). I pray for the same for my children … That You would become central in their life (I’ll have to get that writing done tomorrow)….  

This might be a bit extreme, but you get the picture. My prayers often become a cycle of intentional praise, thanksgiving, and petitions punctuated by inerrant thoughts that slip out. 

As I’ve tossed around what to do about this, three things come to mind.

(1) Continue to pray anyway.

(2) Petition the Holy Spirit to help in this matter.

(3) Experiment with writing down my prayers and thoughts.

Continue to Pray

Countless books have been written about prayer and more will certainly come. A few that quickly come to mind are Max Lucado’s Before Amen: The Power of a Simple Prayer; Mark Patterson’s The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears; Kelly O’Dell Stanley’s Praying Upside Down: A Creative Prayer Experience to Transform Your Time with God; Bruce Wilkinson’s The Prayer of Jabez: Breaking Through to the Blessed Life; and of course Stormie Omarian’s bestselling series, The Power of a Praying….

I’ve read a few of them, and they offer great inspiration to pray and even tips on how to do it. Prayer is obviously an important and powerful tool in a Christian’s life.

So powerful, in fact, that in 1 Thessalonians 5, the Apostle Paul commanded us to “pray without ceasing” (vs. 17) because “this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (vs. 18). 

However, prayer is also a unique expression of our faith. An opportunity to come unveiled before our Father and King. 

Prayer is a unique & individual expression of our faith: an opportunity to come unveiled before our Father & King. Click To Tweet

Don’t give up on praying simply because you’re not the most articulate person. God created your unique personality and abilities.

Furthermore, He knows what you need before you ask Him (Matthew 6:8). By voicing it, however scattered it comes out, you’re demonstrating your faith in Him.

Petition the Holy Spirit to Help

Still we’re not left to stumble through our prayer life (or any part of our life) alone. God presented us with a great and glorious gift of Himself in the form of the Holy Spirit, the Helper.

I’ll be specifically asking the Holy Spirit to give shape and clarity to my prayers. But those times my thoughts and words still fly heavenward a jumbled mess, I’m trusting He’ll intercede as promised in this passage:

“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” Romans 8:26

When your thoughts and words fly heavenward a jumbled mess, trust the Holy Spirit to intercede for you. Click To Tweet

Write Down Prayers

Still desiring clarity in your prayers? Consider writing them down.

Okay, I’m a writer, so it makes sense for me to write. However, writing out prayers is a great practice for anyone.

Putting pen to paper brings clarity to our thoughts. It helps us present them in a logical manner. It prevents us from forgetting that “one more thing” we wanted to lay in God’s hands or that blessing for which we want to give thanks.

Writing down and even memorizing prayers isn’t the only way or the best way to pray, but it can certainly be a powerful one.

And if you feel ill-equipped to write your own, adopt and adapt the template Jesus gave us:

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
¹⁰ Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ Give us this day our daily bread,
¹² and forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³ And lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from evil.”  (Matthew 6:8-13)

Never Ill-Equipped for Prayer

We should never feel unworthy or ill-equipped to draw near to God in prayer. He welcomes, commands and encourages) all of His children — the articulate, the stutterers, the mute and the jumblers alike — to come before Him “by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving.”

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” Philippians 4:6 NLT

Prayer is a key component of our relationship with God. It’s evidence of the intimate bond we have with the Father, thanks to the Son’s sacrifice. And it should never be neglected. 

So when the enemy whispers in your ear that you lack the finesse it takes to present your heart to God, tell him to take a hike. Then continue to nurture the most important relationship you’ll ever have. Continue your conversation with your Father in heaven. 

You should never feel unworthy or ill-equipped to draw near to God in prayer. Click To Tweet

Reflections: Have you struggled with coherently expressing your thoughts to God? Do you find your prayers to be a jumbled mess of words? What have you found helpful? 

It’s been 5 years of counting and I’ve well passed 5,000 gifts in Ann Voskamp’s Joy Dare! What a blessing! Here are numbers #5231–5251. Read my entire list by clicking here.