Weary Prayer — A LifeWords Devotion

Those who have a habit of saying their daily prayers just before going to bed, sometimes find themselves falling asleep in mid prayer. Our tired eyes overcome our prayerful words. But tiredness and praying co-exist at other times as well.

We can be just plain fatigued with all our life circumstances getting on top of us. We can be in physical discomfort or pain. We may not enjoy good sleep and so during the day are weary. All this makes prayer a challenge. It is not as if we have given up on prayer, or even lack the desire to pray. We just don’t have the energy.

So, it is good to read texts like this. How good it is that we don’t have to come to God with all our thoughts in order and all our requests neatly arranged. How good it is that we can be confused and uncertain as to what to even pray for. How good it is that when our words fail our prayers do not fail.

When we are genuinely weary and lost for words, God’s own Spirit comes to our aid and interprets our sighs and groans so that what is on our hearts get through to the Father. He takes our tired silences and conveys their meaning to our Father. This is not an invitation to lethargic laziness; it is simply a recognition that we get weary, and speech tends to give way to silence.

David