5 Prayers to pray when you’re feeling lost, stuck, or discouraged.
Life is a journey. I’ve heard that expression a lot in my thirty four years. Although the expression leaves room for our own interpretations, I’d say overall, I agree with it.
Life, in fact, can be quite the journey. Full of highs and lows, celebration and challenges, the valley and mountain top moments. It’s beautiful and unique and captivating.
But if your experience is anything like mine, even in all its wonder, life brings its own seasons of resistance. You might know them well. They’re the seasons that cause us to feel stuck, discouraged, or lost. The ones where we find ourselves asking how we’re going to take the next step, or what the next right step is. The seasons that feel more wasteful than productive(at least until we look a little closer). They’re the seasons that cause us to question what we’re doing and where we’re headed. We ask ourselves if we’ve failed, if we have what it takes, if we’ve made the “right” decisions up to this point.
These seasons, for me, have often felt paralyzing and bring piles of doubt. I’ve learned over time that my feelings in these seasons will keep me stuck as long as I let them. So, when I’m weighed down by feelings of being lost, stuck, or disappointed, I pray specific prayers to break free.
Prayers To Help You Move Forward
1.“God, please remind me of who I am and realign me with my identity in You.”
I believe that one reason we find ourselves stuck is because we’ve temporarily forgotten who we truly are. The enemy loves to keep us distracted and turn our hearts away from who God originally intended for us to be. Our world is constantly shouting identities at us, presenting us with options that we were never meant to consider. We’re easily pulled towards comparison, confusion, and doubt. God created only one you. And He did it perfectly, a representation of His beautiful workmanship. When we realign ourselves with who He created us to be, we gain clarity on the gifts and traits intentionally placed in us.
2. “I reject the lies of the enemy and come in alignment with the truth of God’s Word.”
How often do we find ourselves torn down by the lies of the enemy? Those nasty voices inside your head, the ones shouting shame, confusion, and insecurities. Oh how tempting it is to allow those voices to guide our thoughts, decisions, and behaviors. There may even be times when we don’t realize that we’ve given authority to the wrong voices. But those lies will happily lead us until we are purposeful about inviting God’s truth to lead instead. Oftentimes, those lies are what are keeping us stuck. His Truth breaks barriers and leads us forward into the good things He has for us.
3. “Purify my heart and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
This prayer invites God to continue His work in us. If we allow it, it also sets our hearts in a place of humility as we admit our need for Him. It is Him who sees the dirt and flesh that still exists in our hearts. He sees all the gunk and He so desperately wants to help us remove it so that we can live free. Through humility we recognize that it’s Him, and Him alone, who holds the power to make our spirits firm and unwavering.
4. “Lord, remove the barriers that are standing between me and what you have for me next.”
This is a straightforward prayer that I pray asking God to remove whatever barrier is blocking me from moving towards what He has next. Keeping in mind that sometimes what looks like a barrier to our human eyes is actually part of His next step for us. I have to often remind myself that I don’t see what He sees. I can trust Him to be doing His work, even when I don’t yet see the fruit of it, or when it doesn’t look like I’d planned or hoped.
5. A prayer of repentance
Our sin cannot separate us from the Father’s love. But, it can create distance in the relationship we have with Him because with sin, we invite shame. Shame is what pulls us far from God. After we sin, we may begin to believe that how we feel about ourselves is how God feels about us. We disqualify ourselves from His unconditional love creating separation. When we repent and ask God to forgive us, we rebuild the bridge between God and ourselves. We recreate the connection. I do this even when I don’t know if I’ve sinned. In that, I ask God to forgive me of sins I’m not aware I’ve committed against Him, fully recognizing the possibility that my human nature and potential ignorance has blindly convinced me of my innocence.
If you’re in a season of feeling stuck, discouraged, or lost, start with these prayers. But, don’t stop here. God speaks to each heart individually. Ask Him to guide you in your prayers and direct you in what to pray.
Go get unstuck, my friends. There’s so much more out there waiting for you.
xo,
Krista
