Suffering and pain, trials and hardships, discouragement and anxiety. These are all guaranteed realities of the human condition—that is, being sinful people living in a sinful world. No one is immune, not even those devoted to following Christ (see, for example, Romans 8:18 and 2 Timothy 3:12).

Sometimes it can be hard to know how to talk to God during these difficult times. Or, at the very least, it’s tricky to know exactly what to say, particularly when the bad times keep on rollin’ without an end in sight. Should I ask for deliverance or does that communicate a lack of faith? What if I ask for healing and it doesn’t come? Does this present trial mean I’ve done something to offend God or to earn his discipline?

Recently, as I was talking about this very issue with a member of our church family, I shared with them three prayers we can pray when enduring times of suffering. Perhaps, by God’s grace, they can be useful to you as well.

PRAY FOR DELIVERANCE

This seems obvious, perhaps, but we can—and should—ask God for relief, healing, help, and deliverance.

Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. … Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oilin the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

James 5:13–16

What’s true of physical illness is true of demonic oppression (Ephesians 6:10–20), temptation (Matthew 6:13), fear (Psalm 56:3–4), and trying life circumstances (Psalms 46:1–3; 138:3; Philippians 4:12–13). There’s no doubt about it: when in trouble we can—and should—call upon the Lord for help and deliverance.

But what about when deliverance doesn’t seem to come as quick as an internet search?

PRAY FOR ENDURANCE

Clearly a harder prayer to pray than that of deliverance, but it’s important that we discipline ourselves to ask God to give us the perseverance needed to endure the suffering we’re experiencing with faithfulness, maturity, faith, and without sin.

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

James 1:2–4

Trials, pain, loss, hurt, and disappointment are never useless. That’s the hard news. As we’ll see in a moment, hard times can be used by God for God-ordained ends. But, in order to benefit from those ends, we must endure by the power of God’s Spirit, informed by God’s word, surrounded by God’s people, with eyes locked on God’s Son, for God’s glory.

Now, what are those ends we are enduring toward?

PRAY FOR LEARNING

Once you’ve asked God for deliverance from your present suffering and then requested he provide you the grace needed to endure, we can also request that he help us, through the difficulty, learn more about him and more about ourselves.

Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.

Psalm 119:67

Athletes improve through hard training. Children mature through discipline. Business savvy is earned through the hard-earned experience of ups and downs. As we know, through hardship can come growth. It’s the same with hard times in life. Hardships don’t have to be wasted. They can be used (and intended) by the Lord as discipline (Hebrews 12:7), catalysts for maturity (James 1:2–4), ministry preparation (2 Corinthians 1:4), testimony-building (1 Peter 2:12), and faith-growing (Romans 5:3–4).

Even in the storms of life, when we struggle to know what to even say to our God, we can—and should—call out to him all the more, asking that he would help us learn whatever it is we can learn while enduring the trial with the grace he provides.