Praying with Power When Life Gets Tough

By Jackie M. Johnson

What do you pray when times get tough? When you're stressed or depressed, when life is overwhelming or disappointing, when you feel like giving up? It's in these challenging times you need to pray with wild hope, says Jackie M. Johnson. With encouraging stories, Scriptures, and prayers, Johnson shows readers how to pray for focus, wisdom, confidence, courage, grace, strength, meaning, and much more. Conveniently structured so that readers can go directly to the chapter that addresses their particular situation, this book will be a lifeline to peace for those who need God's touch. Now available in mass market.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
• Release date: Jan 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781493406388

Jackie M. Johnson

Jackie M. Johnson is the author of the popular Power Prayers for Women and the helpful breakup recovery resource When Love Ends and the Ice Cream Carton Is Empty. She also blogs at Living Single on Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk website. Connect with Jackie at www.jackiejohnsoncreative.com.

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© 2012 by Jackie M. Johnson

Published by Revell

a division of Baker Publishing Group

P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287

www.revellbooks.com

Spire edition published 2017

ISBN 978-1-4934-0638-8

Previously published as Powerful Prayers for Challenging Times

Ebook edition created 2017

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

Scripture quotations labeled Message are from THE MESSAGE. Copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Scripture quotations labeled NLT are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

To protect the privacy of those who have shared their stories with the author, some details and names have been changed.

Published in association with the literary agency of Alive Communications, Inc., 7680 Goddard St., Suite 200, Colorado Springs, CO 80920, www.alivecommunications.com.

"Prayer is the overflow of the human heart. Praying with Power When Life Gets Tough is an aid in helping the heart express its deepest longings."

Gary Chapman, author of The Five Love Languages

"Jackie looks at the elements of prayer in a practical and realistic way, provides wisdom and insight for finding hope when you need it most, and gives you tools for praying with faith and confidence. Her lessons from nature and actual prayers are inspirational and helpful. Praying with Power When Life Gets Tough will become a well-worn book in my library!"

Susan G. Mathis, author of Countdown for Couples and The Remarriage Adventure

Jackie M. Johnson knows what it means to persevere through difficult times. With transparency and love, she gives you practical encouragement through the power of prayer—a spiritual tool that can renew your strength and transform your circumstances.

Valorie Burton, author of Successful Women Think Differently and Your Five-Minute Personal Coach

"Jackie M. Johnson’s Praying with Power When Life Gets Tough will give you the powerful words to pray through any difficulty."

Linda Evans Shepherd, author of When You Don’t Know What to Pray

This book is dedicated to those who need hope.

May you have the courage and tenacity to believe that the one who loves you most will meet your every need—often in ways unexpected.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:13

Contents

Cover    1

Title Page    3

Copyright Page    4

Endorsements    5

Dedication    7

Epigraph    8

Acknowledgments    11

Introduction    13

1. When You Feel like Giving Up    21

Prayers for Perseverance

2. When You’re Busy and Stressed    30

Prayers for Peace and Rest

3. When Life Is a Mess    44

Prayers for Simplicity and Order

4. When You’re Disappointed    54

Prayers for Encouragement

5. When You’re Depressed    63

Prayers for Wild Hope and Renewed Joy

6. When You Feel Insecure    74

Prayers for Confidence

7. When You Feel Fearful    85

Prayers for Courage

8. When You’re Dealing with Difficult People    96

Prayers for Grace and Strength

9. When You Feel Lonely    104

Prayers for Love and Living Connected

10. When You’re Bored    113

Prayers for Meaning and Purpose

11. When You’ve Made Mistakes    122

Prayers for Forgiveness

12. When You’ve Been Mistreated    131

Prayers for Justice

13. When You Can’t Break a Bad Habit or Addiction    138

Prayers for Overcoming

14. When You’re Dealing with Grief and Loss    149

Prayers for Comfort and Hope

15. When It’s Hard to Wait    160

Prayers for Patience and Fortitude

16. When You Feel Distant from God    172

Prayers to Come Closer

17. When You Have Health Concerns    179

Prayers for Healing

18. When You Have Job/Career Issues    190

Prayers for Guidance

19. When You Have Relationship Issues    198

Prayers for Wisdom

20. When You Have Money Issues    209

Prayers for Financial Help

21. When Things Go Right    222

Prayers for Keeping the Faith in Victory and Success

Notes    231

About the Author    233

Back Ads    235

Back Cover    239

Acknowledgments

I would like to heartily thank my agent, Joel Kneedler, and the helpful staff at Alive Communications; Vicki Crumpton and the supportive team at Revell/Baker Books; and Hannah Crider for administrative assistance on this book project.

A bouquet of thank-yous to dear friends, family, and my prayer team: Dad, Mom, Monica and Kit Dennis, Jennifer Johnson, Michael and Amy Zenda-Johnson, Maribeth Sacho, Anne Caddell, Laurie Kreuser, Kim Brunner, Barbara Shimek, Tina Wenning, Maria Martellotto, Lynn Carpenter, Tammy and Paul Houge, Nicole and Sumeet Gulati, Cindy and Gary Coy, Erica and Eric Ensign, Diana and Jeff Keener, Judy Gire, Alice Crider, and Judy Downing. I am honored and blessed by your encouragement and prayers.

Many thanks to my faithful Wednesday night Bible study for your prayers and encouragement: Denise Sharp, Doug Platt, Tait Cyrus, Audrey Davis, Sue Eilertsen, Melissa Sturgis, Mary Kimnach, Connie Ekberg, Andrea Archer, and Alicia McCall. To my writer/editor group led by Susan Mathis, AWSA friends, and people with whom I work at Christian Camp and Conference Association (CCCA), I greatly appreciate your prayer support.

I am beyond grateful to those who’ve been bricks, beams, and mortar in my spiritual journey: my parents, Robert J. Johnson and Patti Ripani, who provided me and my siblings with a spiritual foundation; Lisa Burchell Shimon, who built on that base by pointing me toward a life-changing relationship with Christ; and Pastor Brady Boyd and Pam, who encourage and challenge us often to pray big, audacious prayers.

Thank you, mostly, to my Wild Hope and yours, Jesus Christ. You are immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine (Eph. 3:20).

Introduction

Listen to my cry,

for I am in desperate need.

Psalm 142:6

You see overwhelmed and errand-weary people every day, people who are busy, broke, or barely living. Perhaps you are one of them. Whether you’re coping with sudden trauma or dealing with the frustrations of everyday life, you know too well the realities of disappointment, uncertainty, longing, or lack. Maybe you’re stressed from trying to balance work and home life. Or you’ve been unemployed for months and the stack of unpaid bills is piling higher than snow in the Rockies. Could it be that someone you love has left you or passed on, and you haven’t a clue how life will ever work again? Maybe you’re in desperate need and there never seems to be enough—enough money, enough love, enough time—and you’re simply tired of it.

Everyone faces hardship in life. How do you deal with it? When tough times get you down, how do you cope?

Our hurts and heartbreaks form us. They leave an imprint on the landscape of our hearts—some a small dent, others a deep impression. Whether it’s a literal flood that destroys your belongings or a flood of tears, the terrain of your heart changes and you are never the same. Outside circumstances or your own poor choices may have left you desert dry or completely eroded, feeling worn and weary. But it doesn’t have to stay that way.

The Landscape of Your Life

What is the landscape of your life, and what does it have to do with finding hope? Think of it this way: in nature, a landscape is a section of scenery. It’s the view you see on a postcard, on vacation, or right in your own backyard. Picture the rocky coast of Maine, the dreamlike mountains of New Zealand, or the turquoise waters of Bora Bora.

The landscape of your life is a picture of your heart—your inner life. It’s a snapshot of how you feel or how you perceive your circumstances today. Perhaps your life landscape feels like:

An unexpected avalanche that has buried your hopes and dreams in an instant,

A war zone, littered with the unseen land mines of another’s explosive anger,

A beautiful garden, but hidden beneath the hyacinths are acres of secret pain, or

Miles of wide-open plains—unexpected spaces in your life such as unemployment, recovering from an injury, or the stillness of an empty home with the kids grown and gone.

Restoring Your Life

The landscape of your life may be messy and chaotic or perfectly manicured, but how is it functioning? Are you producing fruit or barely surviving? Maybe it’s time for a change.

Where I live in Colorado, there’s an extraordinary park with gigantic, natural red rocks called Garden of the Gods. Some areas are not open to the public because they need repair, and a sign posted there reads Area under Reclamation. In other words, Don’t walk here; we’re fixing this section. Just as the land needs ecological restoration, the landscape of our hearts needs spiritual restoration—and often emotional and physical changes as well. The good news is that both landscapes and lives can be transformed. Restoration is possible, but often we lose sight of how it happens. We lose sight of hope.

Focused solely on our circumstances, our view becomes myopic; we see only part of the picture. For example, if you looked at a photograph of a desert landscape, all you’d see in the four-by-six-inch photo would be one viewpoint: some sand, a few cacti, and a bit of tumbleweed blowing in the distance. But the picture doesn’t tell the whole story. What you can’t see beyond the edges of the snapshot is an oasis just ahead, or the desert’s end.

There’s more to the landscape, and more to your life.

Beyond the snapshot in your mind of how you feel at this moment, beyond your discouragement or desperation, there is more. There is hope ahead.

Wild Hope for Hard Times

You can have hope in hard times—in all times—when you know more fully the one in whom we put our hope. Throughout this book you’ll learn more about Jesus Christ, our Wild Hope. He is wild in the sense that he is passionate and powerful, adoring and authoritative, yet often unpredictable. Isaiah 55:8 reminds us, ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD. While his ways are often surprising, he acts out of ultimate love. Hope that is wild is extravagant; it is beyond our wildest dreams.

Extravagant hope means trusting God to provide the resources when you have only pennies left to your name. It’s believing even when you cannot see how things will ever change. When you’re desperate or feel as if your world is imploding, it’s having the courage to trust that answered prayer is not just for other people—it’s for you too. Hope allows you to overcome fear and discover a life you never could have thought possible. Having hope is not crossing your fingers and making a wish; it’s folding your hands and saying a prayer. It’s expecting God to answer, even when you have no idea when the answer will come.

You can have hope for the future and for this very moment because:

God is sovereign. He is in control, and you can trust him even when you do not understand.

God is loving. He accepts you unconditionally, despite your circumstances or poor choices. He’s chosen you; he’s just waiting for you to choose him back.

God is wise. He knows what he’s doing, and his wisdom and ways are far beyond our comprehension.

God keeps his promises. He is trustworthy to do what he says he will do.

God is faithful. He is totally reliable and utterly dependable.

God will provide. He is with you and he is for you. The good news is that the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is available to you today, and you can access his wonder-working power through prayer.

Powerful Prayer

Restoring the landscape of your life and getting through tough times come through prayer. But powerful prayer is not a set of magic words or superstitious phrases to get God to give you what you want. Of course, God longs to give good gifts, but there is much more. The foundation of prayer is relationship. Prayer is a dialogue of talking and listening with the Lord; it is a holy connection with the one who wants to know you and be known by you. More than just know, God wants you to experience his love, his goodness, his mercy, and his provision.

Indeed, God has the power to make real and lasting changes in your life, but he also desires you to dwell. God invites you to come boldly, to come believing, and to come often to him. A strong spiritual foundation is formed through consistent prayer and, in difficult times, helps you to stand strong.

In this book, you’ll discover what powerful prayer is and what it’s not. You’ll read about misconceptions and obstacles to prayer. And you’ll learn the different rhythms of prayer as you behold God in worship, plead for a cause, war for a loved one, confess your waywardness, ask for what you need, and thank him for his provision.

Each chapter includes inspiring words of hope and encouragement along with power-packed prayers (each with its own Bible verse) on a specific topic related to hard times. In essence, you’re praying the Word, the most powerful way to pray. Whether you’re praying to overcome challenges related to your health, finances, relationships, or other areas, you’ll learn more about prayer through biblical examples and stories from my life and the lives of others—both successes and setbacks.

God reveals himself and his power through examples in nature too, so there’s a helpful section at the end of each chapter that provides a short nugget of truth, a life lesson from God’s creation.

How can you apply biblical principles of prayer to your life? What does it mean to pray in Jesus’s name? How can your prayers be more powerful? These are just some of the questions that will be answered in this book. Most importantly, you’ll connect more closely with God. As you put into practice what you’ve learned, head knowledge turns into heart experience—and that makes all the difference.

Instead of lingering in the foothills of faith, you’ll climb higher with power-filled prayers on topics such as life after loss, knowing your purpose, unlearning foolishness, banishing worry and doubt, the value of rest, a thirst for God, living connected, God’s amazing provision, radical generosity, compassionate giving, and more.

A prayer-filled life is a powerful life. It will help you to stand strong in tough times. When you pray, your life—and the lives of those around you—will be forever changed. You will be inspired to live with greater peace, restored hope, and more freedom. You will discover wild hope through Jesus Christ, a hope so unexpected yet so wonderfully good that when you begin to grasp it your life just may be transformed into one of startling kindness, lavish love, and limitless possibilities.

The economy may fluctuate, your bank balance may rise and fall, and your emotions may ebb and flow like the ocean tide, but one thing is true: The word of the Lord endures forever (1 Pet. 1:25). God keeps his promises. He will take care of you. He is totally reliable, willing, and able to meet your needs more than you can ever imagine—wildly more, extravagantly more.

When life