Have you ever reached a point where things got so bad that you were desperate for change? Many of us have been in situations so painful that we felt as if we were losing hope. There are no guarantees that life will be pain-free; trouble can surface at any time. Thankfully, however, God gave us prayer as our secret weapon.

God doesn’t want to see us struggling. When we feel helpless against an issue in our lives, we don’t have to be defeated by it. When nothing seems to be going right, our prayers change everything. “And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened” (Luke 11:9, 10). When we believe this, we receive great power.

Faith, without a trace of doubt, is an important component of prayer. When we go to God believing that He wants to get involved in our lives, unexplainable things can begin happening. When the prevailing mindset says we have to “put up” with something, God tells us our faith can move mountains. “…For verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you” (Matthew 17:20). The times when the situation is at its bleakest are the times our faith is most important.

It’s natural to fret and worry about a situation that we don’t have an answer to, but worry isn’t God’s will for us. Prayer opens the door to the supernatural, and allows God to work in our lives. When we pray, He wants us to bring our troubles, hurts, and requests to Him—and then completely let go of them. “Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God” (Philippians 4:6, AMPC). We can be thankful that God is willing and able to take our problems and work things out better that we ever could.

When we’re confident that God will never leave us to struggle with a problem by ourselves, we feel encouraged and strengthened. This is a byproduct of a consistent prayer life. Knowing that God only wants good things for us directs our petitions to Him so that we can deliberately agree with Him in prayer. This guarantees success. “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him” (1 John 5:14, 15, NKJV).

God knows plenty of things we don’t. Asking for His intervention connects us with His limitless knowledge, love, and compassion. Prayer gives us insights we didn’t have before, and reveals things about the situation at hand we could never know about through our own understanding. “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not” (Jeremiah 33:3). Relying on God’s input gives us victory over trouble.

There’s no reason to feel limited by any situation or issue. Conversations with God have the power to remove all limitations. With prayer, breakthrough is inevitable.