Welcome to the Prayers of Rest podcast. I'm your host, Ashrida Chuchu, and this season

we're praying through hard emotions. You know, the ones that good Christians shouldn't struggle

with, but we all feel them anyway. Those ones. They're part of being human, and this season,

we're finally getting honest with God about them, and as we bring these hard, uncomfortable

emotions to him, we'll receive in exchange the peace, the joy, and the rest that only he can offer.

If you've read today's episode title and you're not struggling with anxiety right now,

I still encourage you to listen and pray along and then save this episode to come back to

when you are feeling anxious.

Practicing being honest with God now will give us language to pray

through uncomfortable emotions in the hard times. So as we begin, find a quiet place and take a deep

breath as we enter into God's loving presence together.

Today's passage comes from Psalm 121 verses 1 through 2. I lift up my eyes to the mountains.

Where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven

and earth. So let's begin by reciting God's goodness, praising Him for who He is and for what

He has done in our lives. Oh God, you are my maker. You are my helper. Thank you that you hear me when I cry out to you.

You're the one who comes and rescues me. Thank you that I can depend on you. Thank you that you are close when I'm in trouble.

Thank you that you are not a far-removed God who lives in heaven and looks down on earth, but you are the one who is close to the brokenhearted. You are near when we cry out to you.

So take a few moments to thank God for being your helper, even in this anxious moment....and this anxious moment. Now we express our neediness, confessing our need for God and for His help.

Oh, God, it feels like terror and doom on the horizon.

It feels like it steals my breath away, like I'm suffocating, just thinking about everything that could go wrong.

Lord God, would you lift me out of this pit of despair?

...