Prayer in the Middle of Trouble

Prayer carries us in the middle of distress.

In my previous post, I wrote about prayer and an answered prayer, but the subject stayed with me. Maybe because one of the most unforgettable experiences of my life is tied to this very thing: how help came when I could not see any solution myself. And when I say I could not see a solution, I mean that very literally. Not in some half-dramatic “things were a bit difficult” kind of way, but in the real way, where the options were honestly running out.

One thing needs to be said right away. At that time, I was not a believer.

I was not living as a follower of Jesus the way I understand faith now. Still, I prayed. Or maybe, to be more honest, I did not so much pray as cry out to God for help. Not with beautiful words or spiritual sentences, but straight from the middle of distress. In a moment like that, you do not think much about how your prayer sounds. You just ask for help.

After my divorce, I was left alone with my three small children in a rental apartment that was far too expensive for me. There was only enough money for the absolute basics, and I had no clear plan for how I was supposed to get through the next month. My mother was horrified by my situation and deeply worried. And with good reason. It was not exactly the kind of situation where you could convincingly say, “I’m sure this will all work out somehow,” when inside you are mostly thinking, “How, exactly?”

And yet, at the same time, there was a strange peace in me.

I do not mean that I was carefree or detached from reality. I knew very well how tight things were. I knew the situation was genuinely difficult, and I could not see a solution. But in the middle of all that, I had a strong sense that we would not be left alone. I could not explain it then, and I still cannot fully explain it now. The peace was just there. Like Someone was holding onto me, even when my own grip on life was pretty shaky.

I did not pray for money. I did not ask for an easy life or some grand miracle. I prayed that God would give me strength to endure this trial and help us get through somehow. I only wanted my children to feel safe and for us to have our daily bread. That was my prayer. Not polished. Not beautiful. More like a bare cry for help.

A few days later, I suddenly had the thought: what if I tried the lottery? I had hardly ever played before, so this was not exactly my usual financial strategy. But the feeling was so strong that I decided to act on it. I made one lottery row online, and after that there were still three euros left in my lottery account. I looked at those last euros and decided to buy one scratch card.

When I scratched it, I could not believe my eyes.

I won 50,000 euros.

I still remember the disbelief. That moment when you just stare and cannot quite understand what has happened. Then came relief, shock and enormous gratitude. And of course I checked it probably a hundred times, because I did not believe it was real at first. It felt like the answer had come in a way I never could have imagined or arranged myself.

To me, it was not just good luck or coincidence. I experienced it as God seeing our need and hearing my prayer. Help came in a way I could not have asked for or planned.

That experience changed something in me permanently. The financial fear eased, yes, but even more than that, I was left with the understanding that I could no longer think of God as distant or prayer as just a human form of comfort. Something about it went very deep in me. Something I could not simply dismiss or treat as meaningless anymore.

I am not writing this to turn prayer into some rule or formula. Life does not work in such a way that when you pray, you always receive exactly what you ask for, exactly when you ask for it. It does not. Anyone who has lived through situations without quick answers knows that. But I can say this one thing from my own life: prayer has not been empty for me.

I have seen a moment where my own means had completely run out, and right there I received help. Help I could not have created for myself. That is why I cannot treat prayer as just a lovely religious idea. For me, it belongs to real life. Bills, fear, single motherhood, responsibility and trying to stay in one piece one day at a time, even when the edges are fraying a little.

Maybe the power of prayer does not always show up as everything suddenly becoming easy. Sometimes it first appears as peace in the middle of chaos. Sometimes it comes as an answer that arrives completely unexpectedly. And sometimes only much later do you realize how God carried you even when you did not notice it at the time.

For me, that one moment became a reminder that God hears. He was not absent even when I was not yet a believer. That still stops me.

The Bible says:

“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”
(Philippians 4:6, KJV)

These days, I read that verse very differently than I used to. It reminds me what it feels like to be completely at the end of yourself, to ask for help, and to realize afterward that you were not alone after all.

In my life, the power of prayer does not mean that I control the outcome. It means that God is real even when no solution is visible yet.