You sat down to pray. Your phone was on the kitchen counter, face down. You closed your eyes. And nothing came. Not anger, not joy, not articulated need. Just the morning light on the wall and the slow realization that you didn’t know what to say.
In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can’t be uttered.
Romans 8:26 (WEB)
What’s actually going on
A worship leader’s prayer life is supposed to be the example. Most worship leaders we hear from quietly admit it’s the wreckage.
You’re praying public prayers four times a Sunday. You’re praying over the team. You’re praying for the offering, the message, the volunteers, the new family that walked in. Then you go home and your own life with God feels like static.
The wordlessness isn’t always a sign of distance. Sometimes it’s the natural consequence of being the person who carries everyone else’s prayers all week. By the time you get to your own, the well is dry. Sometimes it’s a season. Sometimes it’s grief. Sometimes it’s burnout. Sometimes it’s nothing nameable at all. You sit down to pray and nothing comes.
This usually leads worship leaders to one of two responses, both bad. The first: try harder. Will yourself into articulating something. The second: give up. Tell yourself you’ll pray when the season passes. Skip the practice until you feel like it.
Neither response actually engages what Paul says in Romans 8.
What’s true
Paul is writing to a church under pressure. He says something that doesn’t quite fit the categories of either willpower prayer or skip-it prayer.
The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We don’t know how to pray as we ought. The Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings which can’t be uttered.
That last phrase is doing the work. “Groanings which can’t be uttered.” Not the unutterable thoughts you wish you could put into prayer. Not even your sighing or your tears, although those count. The Spirit’s own intercession on your behalf, deeper than language, when you can’t get yours out.
That changes the rules of prayer for the wordless season.
When you sit down to pray and nothing comes, what’s happening is not absence. The Spirit is praying. You showed up. That’s your part. The articulation is not the requirement. The intercession is happening at a level you can’t access, on your behalf, in your weakness.
A few things this means in practice.
You don’t have to make prayer eloquent. Sit there. The Spirit’s groanings cover what your words can’t.
You don’t have to make prayer long. The widow’s repeated petition got an answer. The tax collector got justified on seven words. The duration of your sitting matters less than the showing up of your sitting.
You don’t have to make prayer feel like anything. Feelings are weather. Prayer is a covenant. The covenant continues in the weather.
The wordless prayer is not the failure mode of prayer. For many of us it’s the actual core of it. The words come back. They always do. Don’t bail on the practice because they aren’t here today.
For your team
- When was the last time you sat with God without an agenda or a list?
- What’s your usual response when the words don’t come, and is it working?
- What would it look like for you to count showing up wordless as a complete prayer this week?
Pray this
Father, I don’t have words today. Let the Spirit pray what I can’t. I’m here. That’s all I’ve got. It’s enough because You said it was. Amen.
This Sunday
After the service, before you talk to anyone, find a chair somewhere quiet and sit for three minutes without saying anything. Not as a discipline. As an offering.
Go deeper
In the network: Search “Wordless Prayer for the Worship Leader” for the live training where Chris and I unpack the practice of prayer that doesn’t require articulation. Free at thechurchcollective.mn.co.
This devotional is part of The Church Collective’s free 52-week worship team devotional series. Get the first 12 as a free PDF and a fresh devotional in your inbox every Monday morning.