A Short Prayer for Strength During Difficult Times
Have you been walking through a difficult time in your life? Today, I invite you to join me during one of the most challenging years of my life, and I’ll share a short prayer for strength during difficult times of all sorts.
I pray these words lead you straight into the arms of your heavenly Father. He loves you, and he hasn’t missed a moment of the trial you are walking through.
A Short Prayer for Strength During Difficult Times
The oaks flaunted butterscotch hands the year suffering marked our family’s Thanksgiving celebration. I watched from my quiet place on the couch as my family pulled out of the driveway to celebrate without me.
Life felt entirely unfair.
I had prayed and believed for health, and I’d stumbled into a stretch of sickness that was more intense than anything I’d ever known. Aside from a short half hour in the mornings, I was forced to lie completely motionless and drown in my haze of illness.
When Life Is Hard
After a month on the couch, I hoped to join my family for Thanksgiving. I hoped this would be the night when I finally slipped into actual clothes, hopped in the car, and managed to stay up past 7 p.m.
When it didn’t play out that way, I gazed outside at the oak leaves from my spot on the couch.
A sharp pang of sadness thrummed in cadence with my heartbeat.
Most of me wanted to say, Really, God? I asked and believed and hoped and prayed, and you’re really going to ask me to walk through this season of suffering anyway?
I knew the right answers: Suffering produces perseverance, character, and hope. Trials shape us to maturity and completion. Refining fires burn off what we don’t need to be carrying. The Potter holds us like clay and molds us into the image he desires.
The Refining Fires of Life
While these truths all sounded spiritual and contemplative, no part of me wanted to walk through that trial. I didn’t care all that much about perseverance, character, hope, or maturity. I just wanted out of that low place, and I wanted my life back.
Maybe you’re in the low place today, too.
Perhaps all the reminders about giving thanks always, making gratitude lists, and holding onto hope feel trite. You wonder if these words were penned by people who have never lived through real grief, loneliness, pain, or tragedy.
You feel alone.
Layers of grief pile upon you like a wet wool blanket.
Tasting Pain and Heartache When Life Is Difficult
My difficult Thanksgiving wasn’t birthed from the deepest grief I’ve ever experienced, but there’s really no way of measuring a person’s pain without sitting an hour inside her suffering.
I knew pain that year.
I knew loneliness. And in the dark moments on that couch, I tasted despair.
The evening news blared into the darkness like a reminder that life was still happening in the world that had become so foreign to me. Slowly, I scraped myself off the couch for the ten minutes required to stir dehydrated potato flakes and seasoned stuffing crumbs into their perspective pots on the stovetop: my own Thanksgiving feast.
I mixed the pathetic meal with wooden spoons and scooped it onto a plate, calming my tumultuous stomach with soda crackers all the while. I returned to the couch with my food, turned off the news, and sat in the silence with the most pitiable Thanksgiving dinner of my life.
When You Can’t Find Gifts to Count
It seemed fitting to think of some sort of Scripture to console my lonely heart, and while a few verses came to mind, none really stuck to my heart.
I tried to count a few gifts, but those thoughts only brought tears to my eyes as I sat alone in the silence.
What do you do when all you know to do no longer works—when you find yourself alone with your thoughts and your discouragement and not even the tiniest ray of light shining into your pit? #discouraged #faith #hope #hopeinJesus Share on XI remembered the words a speaker at our church once shared: When you don’t know what to say, call his name.
And I whispered that name in the darkness with my lumpy fake potatoes and stuffing. I whispered, Jesus.
There are times when nothing short of an encounter with Jesus can lift a weary head. And while we might encounter him when we turn to his Word, count gifts, or lift a melody, when the darkness is too dark—when our hearts get lost —he waits for the simple call of his name.
This Is Your Prayer for Strength in Difficult Times
There on the couch, I didn’t see Jesus show up with my meager meal. I didn’t feel any wave of majesty, and my nausea didn’t lift. But a tiny ray of light sparked in my soul, and I knew his promise to be true: Call to me and I will answer you.
I knew I wasn’t alone with my pain.
I remembered the reality that Jesus bore more suffering on the cross than I could ever begin to fathom.
His presence was there with me. And he knew all about my pain. Felt it with me. Counted my tears.
And the most interesting thing happened.
From out of the midnight black sky, the tears that welled over my lumpy meal dried up, and I laughed. I laughed, and I could not explain it or account for the shift of heart.
Eternal truth filled my heart: There will come a day when every tear is wiped dry.
I knew—not just in my mind, but in my heart—that I wasn’t alone with my meal.
I knew my pain would all be used for good. In the darkest moments of the journey, he was gently sifting the wheat from the chaff in my life. He was answering my prayers about surrendering control, living presently, and giving thanks.
Keep Eternity in Mind
I also knew my hard season wasn’t a forever season. And mostly, I knew that I was preciously loved by the One who sat with me on that couch and smiled over my sacrifice.
And when you know you’re relentlessly loved in your suffering, when you let the One who promises to carry you reach down and touch your heart, there’s hardly room to stay offended. There’s hardly room to talk about who’s holding up their end of the deal. There is only precious space—holy ground.
Friend, are you struggling today? Is your heart grieving a very deep loss?
Your loss might be much deeper than a year of illness. You might be weeping over the very real loss of a precious loved one. The gratitude lists and catchy ideas aren’t holding much weight in your dark place.
Your Invitation to Say This Short Prayer for Strength in Difficult Times:
Will pause right now and whisper just one Word? Will you say the Name of Jesus and trust him to show up, despite what you feel or don’t feel? He is waiting—a breath away.
You likely won’t find answers to your hardest questions right here in this moment.
The grief won’t disappear.
But let his gentle breath remind you of this: Your hope is not found in improved circumstances; lasting hope is in the One who is right here with you—holding you through the hardest season of your life.
Your hope is not found in improved circumstances; lasting hope is in the One who is right here with you - holding you through the hardest season of your life. #hope #Thanksgivinginspiration Share on XSaying the name of Jesus is enough when you don’t know what else to say.
I have also learned that this short prayer for difficult times radically shifts my focus: “Jesus, please help me to put my hope in the fact that you are with me in this difficult time instead of putting my hope in escaping my pain. I lean into your arms. Please carry me until I find the strength to walk again.”
A Free Devotional Book to Help You Through Difficult Times:
I have a gift for you today. Hope for Hard Days is my free 10-day online devotional to help you hold onto hope when life is tough. You will find 10 readings to help you connect with God and claim his peace. Click here and I’ll send it to your email inbox today for free with promo code HOPE.
These books are free on Kindle Unlimited or available to purchase in print:
God wants to work in your life to accomplish what you’ve been unable to do through willpower alone. Lean Into Grace: Let God’s Grace Heal Your Heart, Refresh Your Soul, and Set You Free shares practical ways to experience God’s freedom, healing, power, and presence in your life. Find this life-changing book as a free eBook on Kindle Unlimited or for 12.99 in print right here. (If you do not have Kindle Unlimited, you can try it out with a free three-month trial!) This book will transform your life and revitalize your relationship with the Lord!
Calling all moms and daughters!
Additionally, my teen daughter, Bekah, and I are passionate about helping moms and daughters grow closer while connecting with God. We have written two mother-daughter devotionals together. Girl to Girl: 60 Mother-Daughter Devotions for a Closer Relationship and Deeper Faith is written for girls ages 7-12. It includes 60 devotions with Scripture, conversation starters, and a shared journaling section after each devotion.
Heart to Heart: A Mother-Daughter Devotional With 50 Devotions for Teen Girls is for teenage girls ages 13-20. It includes 50 devotions, each with a shared journaling section to help moms and daughters connect through writing. This is a great book for moms who want to communicate about awkward topics—like dating, purity, peer pressure, and more—but don’t know where to start. We will help you!
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