The Prayer Nobody Taught You

Many of us were taught how to pray as kids. Thank God for this, ask God for that, pray for our friends who are struggling, bless your food, etc… Somewhere along the way somebody handed you a model for prayer. And maybe it worked for you for a while, and then it didn’t. One day the thing you were actually feeling didn’t fit inside “thank you” or “please help.” You needed something more.

For many Christians, nobody taught them how to pray when you’re furious at God, or numb, or so wrecked you can’t finish a sentence. So they find themselves stuck. I hear this all the time.

Yet, that kind of prayer exists in the Bible. It’s called lament, and it’s one of the most common things God’s people ever prayed. And far too often we just skip it.

And I think that costs us more than we realize. A lot of what we are carrying probably isn’t because we don’t have enough faith. Rather, it might be because we were never given permission to bring God the parts of our lives that aren’t tidy. So we hide them, bury them, and hope they will go away. But hidden things don’t disappear; they fester.

So I want to dive into this prayer that often gets ignored. Let’s take a look.