“When You Don’t Know What to Ask God For”

Pastor Mitch McDonald, Sun Lakes Community Church

No matter what window I look out these days, our world is on fire. Topics of most conversations are what the results of the elections will be, global weather events, civil unrest in our own nation, the war in Ukraine, the war in the Middle East, global food shortages, concerns over another potential global pandemic, or perhaps maybe something as simple as financial instability in our lives. Although I am sitting down to write this article on Oct. 10 and you won’t be reading it until Nov. 1 or 2, I am confident that not much will have changed other than perhaps things becoming even more confusing.

So, what do we do when we’re confused and don’t know how to ask God to fix it? How do you pray when you don’t know quite what to pray for? This dilemma is not new to mankind in the 21st century. The reality is that humans throughout the ages have found themselves at times lost, confused, afraid, not knowing how to even begin to pray to their God.

I’m reminded about this when I study and read about the apostle Paul. Paul, who had become a follower of Jesus Christ after first persecuting believers, ultimately became one of the most influential Christians in the first century church and wrote to the Church in Rome as they struggled with doubt, weakness, and fears. He wanted them to understand that when we don’t know how to pray, we must continue to pray. In the eighth chapter of Romans, he reminded the Church in Rome and reminds us that the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for our words, and the Lord who searches the heart knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because it is God Himself interceding on our behalf for the perfect will of God.

Again, I do not know what tomorrow holds, but because of my personal faith and belief in Jesus Christ and His Word, I know that it is He who holds each and every one of our tomorrows. And even though I’m not exactly sure how and what to ask my Heavenly Father for, I am drawn to take time to retreat to those quiet moments where I can yield to a Holy God and offer Him a very broken and confused world that He willingly and lovingly died on a cross for and continues to care for to this day.

Yes, it does seem like our world is on fire, and we all grow weary, but I know a God that specializes in fixing disasters, bringing peace to confusion, and offering hope to weary hearts and minds. Jesus said in Matthew’s Gospel, come to me all who are weary and overwhelmed. I will give you rest. The poet and hymn writer, Helen Lemmel, in 1922 stated it this way: “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.” I will be praying that as you wake up tomorrow to new, exciting, or scary things, that you will turn to God and not miss His grace in the midst of the fire.