7 Prayers For Seeking God in Times of Uncertainty

When life throws you a curveball, sometimes it’s hard to know where to turn.

Even though I should first turn to God, I often turn to a girlfriend or to social media. I distract myself from hard situations when life feels uncertain and stressful, grateful for a glass of wine or a binge-worthy show.

When this happens, perhaps all I really need instead is a gentle nudge in a new direction – a nudge, one might say, that comes in the form of seven specific prayers for seeking God in times of uncertainty.

Might it be the same for you?

In Hear My Prayer, author Liz Ditty walks through dozens of different prayer exercises readers can participate in during the six-week group study. Using her guidance as a base for us, here are seven prayers she recommends:

1. Welcoming Prayer:

   When the circumstances of life feel like a basket of lemons has been repeatedly chucked at your front door, it can be hard to believe God is still hanging around. But as Ditty writes, a humble posture in prayer “can simply mean that we surrender to the wisdom and goodness of God instead of forcing our way” (16) into stressful moments. The author recommends taking a deep breath and choosing a couple of welcoming prayers, such as one of the following:

• • Jesus, I let go of my need to control my relationships. Welcome.
  • Jesus, I let go of my need to control my career. Welcome.
  • Jesus, I let go of my need to control my circumstances. Welcome.

Whether you create your own welcome prayer or simply sit with one of Ditty’s examples, welcoming God into spaces of chaos is enough of a prayer in and of itself.

2. Prayer of Examen:

   As Ditty writes, this particular prayer is a prayer of awareness – “a daily practice of noticing God’s movements and remembering your actions throughout a period, usually the past day or days” (26). When life feels overwhelming, resting in the love of God happens when we take the time to reflect. She recommends entering into this prayer through the following steps:

• • Ask for attention
  • Begin with gratitude
  • Practice noticing
  • Talk to God

The Prayer of Examen is one of my favorites simply because it invites us to examine the ordinary parts of our day that we might otherwise miss. When I do this, God often reveals tiny bits of beauty in the midst of the mess.

3. Breath Prayer:

   This simple, calming prayer is as easy as it sounds: just as you breathe in a couple of words, you breathe out a couple of words. “Breath prayer is a four-second inhale followed by a four-second exhale,” Ditty writes. As far as the logistics go, “repeat up to three times, or consider repeating it at scheduled intervals” (42).

Care for an example? Here’s an old favorite:

Inhale: Abba

Exhale: Father

Likewise, Jennifer Tucker, author of Breath as Prayer, also recommends the following breath prayer for purposes of calming anxiety:

Inhale: Lord, you are my shepherd.

Exhale: I have all that I need.

What other breath prayer exercises would you add?

4. Song Prayer:

   Is it not true that God often meets people in music? Whether you’re singing a hymn that’s been sung by thousands of tongues for hundreds of years, or feeling the rhythms of a more contemporary song, set against a backdrop of drums and bass, it’s hard not to experience the Divine through song. Although author Liz Ditty doesn’t highlight this as a specific prayer practice, she does recommend letting “Great is Thy Faithfulness” wash over you (46):

Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father,

There is no shadow of turning with Thee;

Thou changest not, Thy compassions they fail not;

As Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be.

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!

Morning by morning, new mercies I see;

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Sometimes, a song prayer is all you really need when life feels tough.

5. Horizon Prayers:

   For Ditty, who takes the reader on a journey through the life of the Old Testament prophet Elijah, it’s easy to feel like our prayers don’t amount to much or aren’t doing any good. It’s easy to stop praying when our prayers aren’t answered – when it seems like God isn’t moving in a situation.

This is when Ditty recommends taking a step back and praying a Horizon Prayer. Here’s what she says about the practice:

“Take a moment to pray. Leave yourself a note in a place you see often, or schedule a recurring meeting on your calendar to pray. After all those years of prayer, Obadiah had no reason to know that he was hours away from God’s miraculous show of power. We have no idea how close we are either” (61).

How might taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture calm you in times of uncertainty?

6. Visio Divina:

   If you’ve never done Visio Divina, you are in for a treat! This prayer exercise doesn’t consist of specific words or phrases, but is instead “a form of meditation that begins with an image and leads to prayer” (68). Perhaps you find a painting or an icon, a statue or a religious symbol. Cement that image (or visual) in front of you. Stare at it. Let it take shape in your mind.

Ditty recommends pairing this time with a passage from the Bible (such as 1 Kings 18:41-45, as she suggests), then doing the following:

• • Breathe slowly and intentionally.
  • Invite God to speak to you through the image.
  • Allow your eyes to focus on one element or take in the whole image.
  • Reflect on the image however you see fit.

I’ve also done this prayer exercise in art museums and from the comfort of my own living room. Wherever it happens, might God’s calming presence meet you in the storm—through art, no less!

1. Tracing a Labyrinth:

   I appreciate the variety of prayer examples Ditty gives in her book, including those that get the reader physically doing Walking (or tracing) a prayer labyrinth is no exception, as “walking the circle started as a way to symbolize a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, but over time, it became the pilgrimage many would take to meet with God” (72).

Ditty offers a printed version of a finger labyrinth in her book, which you can also find on Amazon or even download for free on the Internet. Additionally, if you want to walk a labyrinth physically, visit the World Labyrinth Day website to find a location near you.

More than anything, might God find you in your time of prayer. Whatever the circumstance, whatever the situation, might your heart be calmed as you give yourself to prayer.