A heavy heart
Praying when you are weary and emotionally drained
When my maternal grandfather died, I was angry. I had a lot of feelings.
And when my paternal grandfather died, I felt almost numb. I had so many thoughts racing through my mind…but I couldn’t feel anything anymore except a deep and profound grief that soaked into my bones leaving me feeling exhausted.
And while I knew, in both situations, that there was a future “yes” in the grief, it didn’t make anything any easier.
And, oddly enough, it was more difficult to pray after my paternal grandfather died than my maternal grandfather.
The feeling of being emotionally numb made prayer unsatisfying and almost felt pointless.
And when your heart is that heavy with grief or sorrow or…just total apathy…then prayer becomes so difficult.
You can’t wrap your mind around how prayer can help at all.
So, how can we continue to lean into prayer and lean on Jesus when our hearts are so heavy we feel we can’t keep on going?
By having others pray over us, with us.
“Our Father in Heaven” - The Lord’s Prayer constantly reminds us that we are never alone when we pray.
So asking those who are able to support us in prayer, physically and emotionally, is part of our duty to make prayer natural rhythms of our life.
You don’t have to pray alone.
Let someone else carry you along when you can’t do it on your own.
(And, don’t just tell someone, “I’ll be praying for you.” Go and pray with them. Somehow, some way.)
My prayer for today
Our Father, be with us when our hearts are so heaven we can’t breathe, sleep, or think clearly. Jesus, comfort us and let us be a comfort for others. Amen.
Remember
If you are struggling to pray, ask someone to do it with you. In fact, try to create the habit to start asking people to pray with you instead of for you, in general.