Digging Deeper – When You Feel Desperate, Cry Out
One day the widow of a member of the group of prophets came to Elisha and cried out, “My husband who served you is dead… and now a creditor has come, threatening to take my two sons as slaves.”
2 Kings 4:1 (NLT)
WHEN YOU FEEL DESPERATE, CRY OUT
Desperation can be the very place where we meet God. It doesn’t feel holy in the moment. It feels like panic, grief, and pressure. Yet, desperation often clears away the noise and reveals the truth: we cannot fix this on our own.
The widow had nothing left. Her husband was gone, and her sons were about to be taken as slaves. And yet, she still had a voice. She used it to cry out. Crying out to God doesn’t mean you’re weak—it means you believe He is strong enough to help. Sometimes the most courageous prayer is the most honest one. This woman’s cry was not the end of her faith; it was the beginning of her miracle.
Late one night, a nurse sat alone in her car after a long shift. Her marriage was falling apart, her mother was sick, and her son had started acting out in school. She couldn’t hold it together anymore. She slammed her hands against the steering wheel and shouted, “God, I can’t do this!” It wasn’t rehearsed or reverent—it was real. She cried for fifteen minutes in the hospital parking lot. Later, she said, “That night changed me. Nothing outside me changed immediately, but something inside me shifted. I knew God was with me in the chaos.”
What have you been holding in that needs to be lifted up? Pray out loud today—honestly and simply. God meets us at our most vulnerable.
Steve Roach serves as the Pastor of Spiritual Maturity at NorthStar Church. He and his wife, Amy, live in Acworth and have three girls, Olivia, Sydney, and Hayley and one son, Colton. He enjoys watching sports and spending time with his family.
