Untangling Prayer with Rachel Wojo

When you've prayed your hardest and the answer is still no, where does joy come from?
This week I sat down with Kristy Graham, host of On the Ground with Samaritan's Purse, for an honest conversation about prayer in the hardest places. Kristy has walked with disaster survivors who lost everything and still praised God, with relief teams who run toward danger when everyone else runs away, and with believers in persecuted countries who pray not for protection but for boldness. Through all of it, she keeps landing on one truth: the joy is in His presence, not in the answer.
We talk about surrender, what it means to pray "not my will but yours" and mean it, and how to keep praying with confidence even when God's answer isn't the one you wanted. I shared a bit of my own story with my daughter Taylor, and Kristy shared hers, and together we landed on the same place so many of us need to be reminded of: God is far more interested in being the answer to our prayers than simply answering them.
You'll discover:
Why joy in suffering comes from God's presence rather than changed circumstances
How to pray honestly and still surrender the outcome to God
What persecuted believers pray for instead of protection, and why it matters
The difference between praying for your circumstances to change and letting God change your heart
Why serving others in your own pain can lift the weight you're carrying
If you're in a season where your prayers feel unanswered, this conversation is a reminder that you are seen by a loving God who understands your pain and meets you in it.
Resources Mentioned:
On the Ground with Samaritan's Purse podcast: ontheground.samaritanspurse.org
Learn more about Samaritan's Purse: samaritanspurse.org
Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

You're fine all day. Then the light goes off, your head hits the pillow, and the thought you outran since breakfast is standing right there in the room with you, louder than it ever was at noon.
If fear waits until dark to find you, this episode is for you. We're talking about how to pray when anxiety gets loud, and especially how to pray at night, when everything feels worse and morning feels a long way off.
We go to a story you already know, Daniel in the lions' den, but to a person in it most of us read right past. Because there's someone in Daniel 6 who didn't sleep a wink that night, and it wasn't Daniel. It was the king. And his sleepless night might be the most honest picture of two a.m. anxiety in the whole Bible.
You'll discover:
Why feeling anxious after you pray is not a sign of weak faith
What to actually do in the moment when you can't shut your mind off
Why fear gets so much louder at night, and what that's really about
What King Darius reveals about holding something you cannot control
The reason you can pray more and worry less even at the worst hour of the night
Whatever you're holding in the dark tonight, hear this: God is not waiting for sunrise to go to work for you.
Resources Mentioned:
The Pray Through It Battle Plan (free guide): battleprayers.com
Praying through Life's Battles (preorder now and start reading the digital copy today): battleprayers.com

Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Some seasons leave you so worn out that even prayer feels like one more thing you can't get to. You didn't stop caring. You just got to the end of another full day with nothing left.
This week we sit with the worn-out kind of tired, the everyday depletion of a season with no margin, and the guilt that creeps in when prayer starts to feel like one more thing you can't get to. Anchored in Exodus 33, where Moses, worn down by the weight of all he's carrying, asks God for the one thing he needs most: His presence. And God answers, My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. That rest is personal, and it doesn't wait for a calmer season.
You'll discover:
Why your exhaustion doesn't disqualify you from prayer, and what Romans 8:26 says about praying when you have no words
How to step out of the guilt loop that drains what little energy you have left
The difference between prayer as one more task and prayer as the place you finally get to stop
What the singular you in Exodus 33:14 means for the rest God is offering you by name
How Corrie ten Boom learned that rest comes from handing the burden over, not carrying it better
If you're worn out today, you don't have to gather yourself up before you come to God. He's already in the season with you.
Resources Mentioned
Praying through Life's Battles: 90 Days to Strengthen Your Faith— preorder now and start reading a digital, watermarked copy today by submitting your receipt at battleprayers.com (releases August 25, 2026)
Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Have you ever faced something so big you didn't even know how to start praying about it?
In this episode, we sit with a king named Jehoshaphat who caught news of an army he could not beat, and we watch what he did instead of panicking. His prayer in 2 Chronicles 20 hands us a pattern for the battles we never asked for, the ones that show up before we have any idea what to do. The place where we don't know what to do turns out to be the exact place God's answer begins.
You'll discover:
How fear and faith can sit in the same chair, and why that isn't a sign your faith is failing
Why "we do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you" is one of the strongest prayers in Scripture
What it means that the battle is not yours, but God's, and how that changes the way you pray
Why Jehoshaphat's people worshiped before the battle was won, and how George Müller did the same thing in front of a table of empty plates
A simple six-step way to take whatever you're facing and turn it into a prayer this week
Whatever you're walking into, you don't have to know what to do. You just have to know Who to look to.
Resources Mentioned:
The Pray Through It Battle Plan (free guide): battleprayers.com
Praying through Life's Battles, a 90-day devotional, releasing August 25 from Harvest House. Preorder now at battleprayers.com
Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Have you ever looked around your life and realized that the people who were supposed to be in your corner aren’t there?
Maybe it was the slow ache of carrying something alone and realizing you’re the only one carrying it.
David knew that feeling. He wrote a whole psalm from inside a cave — hunted, betrayed by someone he trusted, with no defender at his right hand. In the cave, he didn’t just cry out to God. He taught us how to pray when we’re cornered.
In this episode, Rachel walks through Psalm 142 and we'll discover what David teaches us about praying inside the cave and not just trying to pray his way out of it.
We close with a recently answered prayer story about a grandmother who was praying for an earlier specialist appointment for her daughter — and watched God answer it through a doorway no one was looking at.
You’ll discover:
What David means by "no one at my right hand" and why it matters for your loneliest seasons
The Hebrew word at the top of Psalm 142 that changes how we read the whole psalm
How to pray when the cave is also a prison — and you can’t see the way out
Why God sometimes shows up inside the cornered moment, not after it
If today’s episode put words to a season you’re in, remember this: God is your refuge in the place — not just out of it.
Resources Mentioned
Desperate Prayers: Embracing the Power of Prayer in Life’s Darkest Moments — desperateprayers.com
Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.