“Praying When the Going Gets Tough” (part 1) by Georgie Tennant: 7 Ways to Pray blog series

When Georgie faced desperately sad news about her sister, she didn’t give up on prayer. I’m honoured to host her deep and poignant thoughts this week and next. You won’t want to miss her hard-won wisdom.

It is March 2017. I am away on a church ladies’ weekend, due to speak in a session the next day. My sister has recently had a baby and has been feeling unwell. Earlier that day she had been on her way to hospital to get checked over. Now it is the evening and neither she nor my parents are answering my texts requesting updates. Phone signal at the retreat centre is poor.

At last, my phone pings. It is my Mum. My sister’s cancer is back and it has spread.

It is impossible to convey in so few words the direction our lives took from that night, for the next six months, whilst my sister underwent immunotherapy, designed only to “prolong her life and make her comfortable,” according to her medical notes. There was so much practical, medical need – hospital appointments, relapses, emergencies, and so much helping her to hold on to the life she was trying to live, as a mother to a tiny, baby boy and a five-year old girl. In her last month, there were hospital visits and, later, hospice ones.

How does one pray at such a time? I had prayed before for practical needs, emotional healing, guidance, direction, peace – but never for something with so desperate, so crucial, an outcome. In this week’s blog post and next, I hope to give some insight into how I prayed in the face of needing so daunting, so enormous a miracle. And then how I recovered my prayer life afterwards, when the longed-for miracle didn’t arrive.

1. I prayed despite my fears that the prayers would go unanswered

I had never asked God for anything so big and so crucial in my whole life. I had to rise to it, I had to feel the full fear of all the possible outcomes and let it drive me to pray like never before for the miracle that seemed so desperately out of reach. Mark 9 v 24 became my frequent cry: “Lord I believe, help me in my unbelief.”

2. I prayed because what other options were there?

I came to the simple conclusion that, if you don’t pray for a miracle and don’t get a miracle, you avoid disappointment. But what if… just what if?! I took the stance of believing for a miracle but having the courage to face hard questions and harsh realities at the same time.

3. I prayed simple, desperate prayers when I couldn’t find the words

Many days I could only squeeze out a “God please heal her. I don’t know what else to pray.” God hears every tiny breath we utter in prayer to him. John Bunyan says “the best prayers often have more groans than words,” so I knew it was okay when those were all I could utter.

4. I prayed specifically, on waves of faith on the days that they came

Some days, I was inspired to pray into specific aspects of the situation. Those moments gave me hope and, more importantly, gave her hope as I shared with her the things I was praying. I still believe hope was a powerful currency for her and helped her to keep going when all seemed lost.

5. I prayed for smaller elements in the situation

The right words, strength, peace, the right appointments – things that weren’t so big and scary and overwhelming as praying for the big miracle.

6. I prayed using the words of others

I declared promises from the Bible over her, using songs and psalms – ones that stirred hope and faith in me when it was wavering or ones I could cry out to God with, as prayers. I used prayers other people had written and found those able to express things I couldn’t.

7. I was carried by the prayers of others

It was a tangible comfort to know that so many people were praying the same thing as me all over the country. I know those prayers made a difference, just like in Exodus 17v12, “Aaron and Hur held [Moses] hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset.”

Ultimately, there was no miracle of healing. Within six months my sister’s death happened, leaving a very small girl and an even smaller boy behind, not to mention big issues of faith and theology, trailing in her wake.

Next week, I will be back to explain how I walked through those and came out with my faith and prayer life still intact.

Georgie Tennant is a secondary school English teacher in a Norfolk Comprehensive. She is married, with two sons, aged 13 and 11, who keep her exceptionally busy. She writes for the ACW Christian Writer magazine occasionally, and is a contributor to the ACW-Published New Life: Reflections for Lent, and Merry Christmas, Everyone, and, more recently, has written 8 books in a phonics series, published by BookLife. She writes the ‘Thought for the Week’ for the local newspaper from time to time and also muses about life and loss on her blog. The full sermon that inspired these blog posts can be found here, starting at around the 12-minute mark.

Order 7 Ways to Pray here, including in the US, UK, and Australia. You’ll also find lots of resources for small groups – videos and a leader’s guide – here.