What do we do when our words fail us when we need to pray. Often, I sing songs of prayer that voice the feelings or needs that I have at that time. One of my favorites is a song I wrote about in a post I am reblogging here that I wrote seven years ago today: “Father, Hear the Prayer We Offer.” Read it, like it if you will, and comment on what you pray when you cannot.
What does the homeless woman pray as she huddles under a cardboard shelter? What did the religious among the schoolchildren who drowned in South Korea pray as they sank beneath the surface? What does the unemployed veteran cry out to God as he relives painful memories each night, only to awaken to an equally frightening present? What does the lawyer pray, after winning her case, when she drives home to a marriage in disarray? What does the angry voter pray, as he enters worship enraged at national leaders, and yearning for restoration in his homeland, but also wanting peace in his soul?
Sometimes, we do not know what to pray. We’re afraid to unleash pent-up rage in a petition to our Creator. Repeated failures have numbed our hope for anyone, even God, caring. We may, in those moments, open our Bibles and discover cries of lamentation by psalmists, Job, and…
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