“I don’t even know what to pray for right now.  I don’t know where to start.”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard these words or some arrangement like them over the years as a pastor. 

A loved one dies.  A marriage falls apart.  An unexpected loss comes crashing into someone’s life.  Life can be unbelievably hard. 

Recently, the number of tragic events leaving us speechless, and at times even prayerless, has felt too numerous to count. 

The building collapse in Miami. 

Fires raging out West and flooding in the East.

The Delta Variant of COVID-19. 

The anguished requests of people in Cuba for aid. 

The earthquake in Haiti with its death toll of over 2,000 people. 

The horrific events in Afghanistan. 

Sadly, this is far from being an exhaustive list.

For many of us, there’s an unexpected numbness, a spiritual confusion, that arises within us when we are confronted by so much brokenness, all at once. 

We don’t know what to do.

We don’t know what to say.

We don’t know what to pray.

If you’re finding yourself in a similar position, unsure of what to do, say, or pray in these difficult days, God in his compassionate wisdom has a word for hearts such as yours:

The Spirit helps us in our weakness.  We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.  And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.  ~ Romans 8:26-27 (NIV)

That ache you feel for the lost.

That groaning you utter upon hearing more bad news.

That pain that rises up in you on behalf of those who are suffering. 

That question you barely manage to whisper through gritted teeth asking, “How long Lord?  How much longer must we wait?”

That is the prayer.

When we don’t know what to do, say, or pray and our hearts ache and spirits groan at the brokenness before us, that isn’t “nothing” – that is the foundation of Spirit sourced intercession welling up within us. 

Don’t think that small or insignificant.  God is fully capable of translating your tears.  That ache, that pain, that groan, that longing to pray something, but not knowing where to start or what to say is far more potent and powerful than you can imagine.  Don’t downplay your speechless prayers, for when we’ve come to the end of ourselves, the Holy Spirit of God is more than ready to step in. 

So, when you don’t know what to do, say, or pray, don’t lose hope.  Do what you can.  If there is something monetarily or materially that can be done and you can help do it, do that too. 

Just don’t underestimate those speechless prayers.  Don’t think that because those in need are unlikely to hear or see them that they don’t matter.  You may be timebound and locationally limited, but God is not.  Your tears and groans matter because through them the Spirit speaks, with them the Spirit prays, and in them the Spirit moves.  You may never see your speechless prayers reach those for whom you pray, but where you cannot, God can.  God does. 

Let’s start by doing what we can with what we have, and in those moments when we can’t even do that, let’s trust the Spirit of God with our groans and tears for the glory of God and the sake of the world.