Crying Out to the God Who Hearsنموونە

When Prayer feels hard: Crying out to God as Worship

I remember a season when God’s call to me was unmistakably clear: He was calling me back to prayer. The call echoed everywhere I turned – through the podcasts and sermons, chats with friends, even my Instagram feed. It was loud and persistent. And I wasn’t surprised. In my heart, I knew that it was long overdue because I had been struggling to pray.

The call came a few weeks after my dad had passed away. With his passing, many responsibilities had suddenly fallen on me. To stay level-headed, I felt I had to suppress my emotions. Prayer would have meant facing the grief I was avoiding. Facing the grief would have provoked tears – and I’d feared that if I started crying, I would not be able to stop. And so, my prayer life stalled.

During that time, I was deeply grateful for the prayers of others. My church family and friends sent messages assuring me of their prayers for me and my family. With each message promising prayer, I was comforted to know that there were people praying for all the things that I couldn’t pray for myself. But borrowed prayers can only carry you for so long.

After a couple of weeks, it became clear that I needed to talk to Jesus from my own heart. I had to face the reality of my loss and heartache, and cry to God about it. That’s why it wasn’t surprising to receive His call back to prayer. In His mercy, God was reminding me that He had not turned His ear away even when I had gone silent on Him. It was a tender invitation: ‘I know you have been silent. And I know why. But it’s time to talk to Me again. Don’t feel ashamed. My ear is still inclined toward you.’

With this, I’ve been thinking about why we often struggle to pray. Sometimes it’s because asking for help feels too vulnerable. Whether it’s asking for help in our suffering or in our sin. And if we go on for too long without turning to God for help, we might feel too ashamed to return. This reminded me of some meditations I had on Psalm 50.

In the psalm, we see God rebuking His people – not because they had stopped making sacrifices, but because their worship was empty. Sure, they were religiously offering sacrifices, but God says this is not why He is rebuking them (v. 8). It seems the Israelites were offering these sacrifices as though doing God a favour, as though He needed the sacrifices. But God reminds them that the world and everything in it belongs to Him (vv. 10-12).

What God wants from them as true worship is seen in verses 14 and 15, where God says,

“Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”

It was verse 15 that struck me: calling on God in our need is an act of worship that pleases God!

We usually think of worship as the act of giving to God – not asking from Him. Similar to what the Israelites were doing in the Psalm – they were giving bulls and goats and burnt offerings. In our day, we call it ‘worship’ when we go to church, give offerings, and sing praises to God. And yes, that certainly is part of worship, just as it was part of worship for the Israelites to offer sacrifices to God. But the reality is that we can sometimes do all those things and still have our trust set somewhere other than on God. We can do all those things and still have a stifled prayer life.

Our times of trouble usually indicate where our hope truly rests. God reminds us that He does not need anything from us, but we need everything from Him. He reminds us that true worship is also about dependence upon Him.

Turning to Him in our need declares who He is and who we are. It proclaims His might and our weakness, His sufficiency and our need. Our cry to Him is a testimony of trust – that we believe that He cares, that He is dependable, good, and able to help.

And here’s the amazing beauty: God delights in that kind of worship! He promises to deliver us when we cry to Him, so that our rescue leads to His glory. This is who our Father is: the One who loves to save. He has already shown His heart by sending us His Son, our Lord Jesus, to redeem us (Jn. 3:16-18). And now, as His children through faith in Jesus (Jn. 1:12), we can be sure that our cries are never a burden to Him. He delights when His children run to Him in trust and dependence. He delights to care for us.

So, whenever we find ourselves in a place where prayer is difficult – when grief, shame, or weariness weighs heavily on us – let us remember: crying out to God is itself an act of worship. It delights Him. It honours Him. And it draws us closer to Him who loves to save.

Whatever your struggle, whatever your need, may you be encouraged: God wants you to turn to Him. He cares.