Praying in Troubled Times

Nothing puts us on our knees like trouble we cannot handle.  Of course, it often takes some of us a bit of time to realize that our trouble is beyond our ability to manage.  We tend to depend upon ourselves and our ability to figure a way out of our dilemma.  Some troubles provide no exit.  Personal perseverance makes no difference.  There are those times of difficulty which simply batter the human spirit until our spirit has no have legs upon which to stand. 

In those moments of being at the end of our rope, we most often turn to prayer.  Why it takes us so long to get to a place that feels so logical and needed is often hard for us to figure.  The important thing, however, is not how long it takes to arrive, but the fact that we come to a place of praying.  How we pray is not nearly as important as the spirit of desperate need which we confess on bended knee.  To pray out of desperation is to pray out of a faith that recognizes that deliverance is not within  us, but inside the mercy of God.

Whenever we come to a moment of stepping in and immersing ourselves in that ever flowing river of prayer, what we take with us is not as important as Who it is that is listening with compassion to our praying.  When words fail us, when we are not sure how to pray, God remains as the constant.  He is not listening so much to our words as He is to our heart.  There are times when our prayers are more like a waterfall of tears empty of words and there are times when we find ourselves kneeling in silence with no words rising up from within us.  It matters not.  God hears both the words of our mouth and the unspoken words of our heart.  Sometimes in deep trouble it seems that our prayers fall on deaf ears, but never does it happen.  The ears of God are always listening even as His heart is always working to bring us out of our trouble.