How to Pray Through a Crisis or Dilemma
He leads me …
To ‘pray through’ is usually when we pray regularly until we break through and get an answer to our prayer. This usually means that we pray more than just one prayer and then expect an immediate result. What we actually do is to keep praying repeatedly until either we get a feeling of peace that an answer is going to happen, or we get a response to what we are looking for.
We can also pray through Scripture, by taking some well-known verses like the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13), the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus’ Great Prayer (John 17:6-24), Prayer for Spiritual Wisdom (Ephesians 1:16-19), or any of the Psalms. Other verses like Colossians 1:9-14 and Revelation 4:8, 11; 5:9–10, 12-14 can be inspirational too.
When we read scriptures like these, we personalize what is said and then pause after each sentence to see what thoughts we have so that we can pray about what we have received. If this is hard, we can get a modern commentary of the verses we are reading to provide some extra understanding of the passage.
‘On our own we may tend to pray about the same few issues over and over and over,’ says Professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology Andy Naselli. ‘But if we pray Scripture as we read through the Bible, that will force us to pray about a rich variety of issues in scriptural proportion.’[1]
If we are concerned about what we see in the news, we can download free news apps onto our phone or computer for our local region or perhaps go to BBCNews or Al Jazeera which are also free, for international news. We can then pray through the news articles. Often it is sufficient to just read the title and then pray about that, but we can read the article as well if more information is required.
For most Christians we will pray through issues that are personal. When we refer to a crisis we are talking about a serious situation, often under pressure which requires prompt answer, and when we talk about a dilemma, we look at it as a situation where there is uncertainty, and no clear options appear to be available.
The subjects that we pray about could be subjects like - what is the Lord’s calling for us, forgiveness of our sins, and resisting temptation. Or they could be things like finance, health, God’s strength for special situations, family issues, job issues, church issues and people’s salvation.
We now know what we are praying for so how do we pray through a crisis or dilemma?
Remember that it is not the length and intensity of our prayers is that ‘gets through.’ It is the blood of Jesus and our faith that gives us access to the God of the universe. Our prayers are not answered because we say the right things, but because we have a good God who is interested in what comes from our heart.
When we pray it is alright to be angry. It is alright to cry. It is very important to release our emotions to God as we pray through. God understands our emotions because He understands us. It is okay to tell God we are upset, or angry or hurt or disappointed. Sometimes what we need to do is really pour out our heart to God. Job poured out his disappointment to God when he said in Job 16:20b, ‘…as my eyes pour out tears to God.’
We should be careful that we do not become so overcome with discouragement that we move from a place of trust in God to a place where fear and doubt take over.
So, when we start to pray, we should first put our crisis or dilemma in perspective with the Lord’s promise of eternal glory (Romans 8:18). We may pray something like, ‘Lord, Your eternal glory is my destiny - not any troubles that I have on Earth. So please help me to see them as You do – a momentary inconvenience which I can learn from.’ This should help us to see that our problem is not a disaster.
It is also okay to pray for miracles and healing, and they may happen. And if they do not, that does not mean our faith is lacking, or that God is not interested in helping us. What it means is that they are not part of His plan. He will respond in His way and when He is ready.
It is not uncommon to hear comments like, ‘If God is a God of love, why did this happen?’ or ‘If God is all powerful, where was He when that terrible thing occurred?’ or ‘It must be the will of God that this happened, because He has all power, and He should have done something about it.’
These comments are effectively saying that God should do what we want Him to do. This is definitely a case of the tail wagging the dog - a situation where an important or powerful person or organization (in this case God) is being controlled by someone or something that is much less important or powerful. Apart from claiming God’s promises, who are we to tell Him what to do? We can ask Him – yes. But tell Him – no.
We should consider what God’s will is rather that pushing for what we want when bad things happen to us (Romans 8:19-20). Also, we do not give in to circumstances, sickness or suffering unaided. We surrender ourselves to God to follow His will and not our own. After all, He knows what the best option is every time.
It may seem like we are at a crossroads. There may be several ways that we could proceed, but we do not know which is the right way. The crossroad reminds us of the cross of Jesus Christ and His victory. If we deal with our trouble in the light of His cross, then we will find the right solution.
The best way to get results for our prayers is to pray in the Spirit, where the Holy Spirit brings our prayers to life. If we are new to this, we should ask the Lord to help us to receive what the Holy Spirit says to us.
He not only brings life to our prayers, but He also carries them to the Father in the name of Jesus. He is actively involved as He illuminates our mind with thoughts that come to us as we pray. These thoughts will either be the right words to pray, or He may give prompts on what to pray for. To begin with it may seem hard to tune it to what the Holy Spirit is saying, but it gets easier with practice.
Then, ‘if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance’ (Romans 8:25 NKJV).
Jesus has said, ‘Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you’ (Matthew 7:7, NLT). And what Jesus has said is His promise to us that He will always keep.
If we do not have peace over a situation, we should keep praying until God gives it to us. We will find that the Holy Spirit is right there to comfort us and help to find the right answer.
We should also allow God to give us understanding about our hurts. Often there are reasons for the hurt that the Lord has allowed to occur, so we should listen to Him and find out what He wants us to learn.
We see this with the psalmists could also be like the psalmists who often started their prayer to the Lord with a cry out to the Lord with emotional pain or sorrow when their life appeared to be going wrong. Yet by the time we get to the end of the Psalm, we see that after venting a bit and also allowing God to respond, the psalmist is feeling better and are praising the Lord.
It is so much less stressful when we hand over our worries and concerns to God and allow Him to take over. He really does know what He is doing, and we can be assured that we will get the right answer.
Dear Reader – If you have found some value in this blog, please feel free to send a copy on to your family and friends. Kind regards, John
[1] How to Pray Using Scripture, thenivbible.com;
