Untangling Prayer with Rachel Wojo

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.

Have you handed your worries over to God, felt lighter for a few days, and then realized you were carrying them all again?

This week, Rachel sits down with longtime friend and Bible study author Mary Boswell to talk about the exhausting cycle so many of us live in: theologically, we know Jesus offers rest, but practically, we keep putting on our "big girl pants" and shouldering everything ourselves.

Mary opens up about the season that broke that pattern for her — caregiving for her mom through pancreatic cancer, parenting through a child's hard season, supporting her husband through a doctoral program, and then COVID. She shares the early morning when Matthew 11:28-30 stopped being a familiar passage and became an actual invitation, and how learning to release her burdens (over and over) has built strength she didn't know she needed.

You'll discover:

• Why many Christian women believe God offers rest but rarely receive it
• The quiet way we take our burdens back without realizing it
• What real rest actually looks like in a season that won't slow down
• Mary's "something's not right-a-meter" — how to notice when you've picked it back up
• Why prayer that's honest and ugly is sometimes the prayer that lights the load
• The muscle that grows every time you hand it over again

If you've ever wondered why surrender feels like a one-time prayer that never quite sticks, this conversation is for you.

Resources Mentioned

Come to Me: An Invitation from Jesus to Find Rest for Your Soul by Mary Boswell

Connect with Mary: Website: thecalmofhispresence.com 

Connect with Rachel

Website: rachelwojo.com 

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

Are you living in the gap between the motherhood you pictured and the motherhood you actually have? If Mother's Day stirred up grief you didn't know was still there — or if something has been quietly hardening around the edges of your heart — this episode is for you.

In this post–Mother's Day episode, Rachel sits with the question almost no one says out loud: How do I pray when bitterness keeps creeping into my motherhood? Anchored in the story of Naomi in Ruth chapter 1 — the woman who came home and told her whole town to call her by a different name, Mara, because the Almighty had made her life bitter — this episode gives moms permission to name what they're actually feeling and reminds them that the bitter chapter is not the last chapter.

Rachel shares the season in her own life when bitterness was closer to her than it had ever been: losing her mom at 62 when she was 27, and grieving the grandmother her mom would have been to her kids. She talks about how reading the Psalms — not one specific psalm, just the whole book of them, day after day — became her lifeline through a season she didn't know how to pray through.

You'll discover:

• The difference between grief and bitterness, and why naming it matters
• What Naomi's honest "call me Mara" prayer teaches us about coming to God with the actual word for what we're feeling
• Why the Psalms hold both honesty and faith on the same page, and how that becomes a lifeline
• How God works in the gap between the motherhood we pictured and the motherhood we have

If you're in a bitter chapter today, this episode is a gentle reminder that God is doing something underneath the surface — even when you can't see it. The bitter chapter is not the last chapter.

RESOURCES 

• 31 Prayers for a Mom's Heart prayer cards — rachelwojo.com/shop
• The Hope Circle women's community — rachelwojo.com/the-hope-circle

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

Have you ever stopped praying boldly because you've been disappointed by God's answer before?

In this episode, we're sitting with one of the hardest questions a praying woman carries: how do you ask God for another miracle, when last time you asked, the answer wasn't the one you wanted?

Anchoring in Psalm 78, where Asaph reminds Israel that God divided the sea and made the water stand up like a wall, Rachel shares about why disappointment makes us forget who God really is and what it looks like to pray boldly again. 

Especially fitting for the week before Mother's Day, when so many of us are carrying motherhood that didn't look the way we expected.

You'll discover:

• Why disappointment shrinks our prayers without us realizing it
• What Psalm 78:13 actually teaches us about asking for the impossible
• The difference between praying in faith and praying in self-protection
• Why remembering what God has done is a form of spiritual warfare
• A personal answered prayer story tied to the release of Rachel's new book

This week, may you find the courage to pray boldly again, even from your hardest losses.

Resources Mentioned: NEW AND AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER: Praying through Life's Battles 

Connect with Rachel: Hope Circle Membership Community

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

Watching your child struggle and not knowing what they need? You're not alone. Whether your kid is two or twenty-two, there are seasons where you can tell something is off but you can't fix it, can't name it, and don't know how to pray about it.

In this episode, Rachel explores how to pray for your kids when you don't know what to ask for, anchored in Psalm 139 and 1 John 5. She shares a personal story about her daughter Tris going through her keep boxes ahead of her fall wedding, and what those old school notes revealed about a slow, faithful answer to years of prayer.

You'll discover:

• Why not knowing what your child needs doesn't disqualify you from praying for them
• What Psalm 139:13–16 says about how well God already knows your child
• The 1 John 5:14–15 prayer you can pray when you have no other words
• How God answers prayers we didn't even know how to pray correctly
• Rachel's honest reflection on praying through Tris's seasons and watching God form the answer over twenty-two years

If you're praying for a kid you can't read, a season you can't decode, or a need you can't name, this episode is for you. God hears you. He's already at work on an answer you can't yet see.

Resources Mentioned: 31 Prayers for a Mom's Heart — rachelwojo.com/shop

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

f Mother's Day feels heavy this year because your arms ache for a child in heaven, this episode is for you. I'm sitting down with my friend Jennie Lusko, author of The Fight to Flourish and mama to a daughter in heaven, for one of the most honest conversations I've had on this podcast about what prayer really looks like when grief takes your words away.

Jennie shares what she prayed in those first moments of loss, the seasons when God felt silent, why she and I both had to switch Bible translations just to read Scripture again, and the picture of a seed planted in dark soil that changed how she understood the fog of grief. She also shares a word for the mom who's still in it, still surviving, still waiting for the fog to lift.

At the end, Jennie prays specifically for moms walking into Mother's Day with a heavy heart.

If you've ever prayed from that place of desperation, when you had no words left, my book Desperate Prayers: Embracing the Power of Prayer in Life's Darkest Moments was written for you. Find it at desperateprayers.com or wherever books are sold.

Resources mentioned:

• Desperate Prayers by Rachel Wojo: desperateprayers.com
• The Fight to Flourish by Jennie Lusko
• 31 Prayers for a Mom's Heart prayer cards: rachelwojo.com/shop
• Daily Light devotional by Anne Graham Lotz
• The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones

Have an answered prayer story to share? Leave a voicemail on any page at rachelwojo.com or email [email protected].

God sees you. He hears you. He knows your needs.

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

Have you ever sat in a prayer circle and thought, her prayers sound so much deeper than mine? Or read somebody's dramatic testimony and wondered if God is even listening to you the same way? Or wished your prayer requests were about the happy problems instead of the hard ones you're actually carrying?

If any of that just landed on you, this episode is for you.

In this episode, Rachel names a kind of comparison almost nobody talks about out loud — the ache of comparing your prayer life to everyone else's. She walks through Jesus' parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18, where two men prayed side by side and only one of them went home justified, and then shares a powerful answered prayer story from Corrie ten Boom's time in solitary confinement at Scheveningen prison — a six-word prayer, and the ant God sent in response.

You'll discover:

• Why comparing your prayer life is the sneakiest kind of comparison — it dresses itself up as humility
• The moment the Pharisee's prayer stopped being a prayer and started being a performance
• Why God is not grading your prayers against hers — and what He's actually listening for
• How Corrie ten Boom's six-word prayer in a Nazi prison cell proves that desperate, honest prayers are the ones God answers
• A practical way to break the comparison cycle the next time you catch yourself measuring

If you've ever felt small in your prayer closet because you're pretty sure the woman down the street has a deeper one, this episode is going to set you free.

Resources Mentioned:

• Praying the Promises of God: A 52-Week Guided Prayer Journal — promisesprayerjournal.com

Until next time, remember: God sees you, He hears you, and He knows your needs.

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

You're lying in bed, and your brain will not stop. The to-do list. The what-ifs. The thing you said yesterday that you keep replaying. You want to pray, but you can't even get a full sentence out before your mind is somewhere else. If that's you, this episode is for you.

In this episode, Rachel unpacks 2 Corinthians 10:5 and what it actually means to take every thought captive. She shares the real story of a racing mind at 4 am and how handing God the parking garage, the weather, and the drive home became the prayer she didn’t know she needed.

You’ll discover:
• Why a racing mind doesn’t mean a disqualified heart
• What Paul meant by “taking thoughts captive” and how to do it at 4 am
• How to turn racing thoughts into actual prayer instead of fighting them
• Why the spin might be a spiritual battle, not a personal flaw

If your brain runs laps every time you try to be still with God, this episode will remind you: He’s not waiting for perfect focus. He’s waiting for you to hand it over.

Resources Mentioned:
• Praying the Promises of God Prayer Journal: promisesprayerjournal.com

 

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

The angels at the empty tomb asked the women a question that I've been thinking this week: "Why do you look for the living among the dead?"

This Easter, Rachel gets honest about the dead places she's been looking for life — not out in the world, but inside her own heart. The self-talk that tears down instead of builds up. The thoughts that are not true, not honest, not of good report. And what happens when what's living in our hearts starts flowing out of our mouths.

You'll discover:

• Why the angel's question at the tomb isn't just about Easter morning but about every morning
• What Matthew 12:34 reveals about the connection between your heart and your words
• How to tell the difference between the Holy Spirit's conviction and the enemy's condemnation
• A practical way to replace dead thoughts with living Scripture
• Why guarding your heart is the most important battle you'll fight this week

If you've been carrying the weight of your own inner critic, this episode will remind you: the tomb is empty, and you don't have to live there anymore.

Resources Mentioned:

• Desperate Prayers: desperateprayers.com

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

Sometimes we think God stops working because the battle shifts to unfamiliar ground. He helped us through that one thing, but this? This feels like a different category.

In this Easter episode, Rachel unpacks a surprising story from 1 Kings 20 where Israel's enemies called God a "hill God" — powerful in some places but limited in others. God's response? He won the victory in the exact place they said He couldn't. That's what happened at the cross.

You'll discover:

• What the Arameans got wrong about God and why we make the same mistake
• How we accidentally shrink our prayers when the battle moves to new terrain
• Why the cross as the ultimate valley became the place of the greatest victory
• How Easter changes everything about the way we approach God in prayer

If you've been holding back in prayer because you're not sure God works in your current valley, this episode will remind you: He is not only a hill God. The resurrection proves it.

Resources Mentioned:

• The Hope Circle (founding membership rate ends 3/31) https://rachelwojo.com/the-hope-circle
• Desperate Prayers book: desperateprayers.com

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