How do we pray when we have no words? When we don’t know what or how to pray or when the situation is so overwhelming we can’t even think straight?
Several months after my husband died, I walked outside to find my six-year-old with his dad’s BB gun. I was alarmed and had a serious conversation with him about why he couldn’t get it out without permission and an adult present. He nodded. I locked it up, and I thought that was that until a few days later, I walked outside to find him doing the same thing.
This time, I wasn’t as patient. Tears welled in his eyes as I took the BB gun back inside. Walking into the laundry room, I closed the door, buried my head in a pile of laundry, and let the sobs of sorrow come.
I knew this wasn’t disobedience. My baby was grieving his dad and the times they’d gone shooting in the woods and fishing at the river.
No words formed as I cried into that laundry pile. But God heard my groans.
Not more than an hour later, a friend called, saying her husband wanted my sons to visit their farm. “Is there anything special they could do while they’re here?” she asked.
Oh, yes. Knowing her husband was a bird hunter, I asked if he’d let them shoot to their hearts’ content and if he’d talk to them about guns and safety the way a dad talks to his son.
God had not only heard my prayer without words, He’d answered it. God hears your wordless prayers, too.
David from the Bible had many wordless prayers. In Psalm 6:6–9, David talks about those prayers. He says, “I am worn out from sobbing. All night I flood my bed with weeping, drenching it with my tears. My vision is blurred by grief; my eyes are worn out because of all my enemies. Go away, all you who do evil, for the Lord has heard my weeping. The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord will answer my prayer” (NLT).
Like He did for David, God makes sense of our weeping and comes to our rescue through the help of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 8:26–27 says: “The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will” (NLT).
The God who created us foresaw that there would be times when we wouldn’t know what to pray, when we’re simply out of words, or too exhausted by circumstances to form a coherent prayer. He made provision for our wordless prayers through the Holy Spirit.
When we lack the words to pray, the Holy Spirit has them. When all we can do is utter “help” or sob into a pillow, the Holy Spirit covers us in perfect prayer. He knows our heart’s deepest wrestlings—even those we aren’t aware of—and He also knows God’s thoughts. That’s why the Holy Spirit can intercede perfectly for us “in harmony with God’s own will.”
Knowing our needs, God goes to work, bringing about good from even the most difficult situations (Romans 8:28). That’s an important truth to remember, maybe even now, as you find yourself crying out to God without words.
I pray it brings you comfort, knowing that the tears you cry into your pillow never go unnoticed by God (Psalm 56:8). Nor do groans too deep for words. When you don’t have words to pray, God hears the cries of your heart, answers your prayers, and works all things out for good.
LISA APPELO is a speaker, writer, and Bible teacher who inspires others to deepen their faith in grief and find hope in the hard. Formerly a litigating attorney, her days are now filled with parenting seven children, ministering, writing, speaking, and running enough to justify lots of dark chocolate. Find Lisa’s encouragement for faith, grief, and hope at LisaAppelo.com.
