A Prayer for When You’re Tired of Fighting the Same Thing - Your Daily Prayer - August 24
August 24, 2026
A Prayer When You’re Tired of Fighting the Same Thing
By Rachel Wojo
Bible Reading
"For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory." Deuteronomy 20:4
Listen or Read Below:
A fly got into my office last week, and I shut the door, which felt like a reasonable plan at the time. Just the two of us in a small room. I was the one holding a fly swatter.
But the problem then? It wouldn't slow down. That crazy fly never landed anywhere long enough for me to line up a shot, so I just kept swinging at the air. After a few minutes, I was breathing hard and talking out loud to a fly. I did get it eventually.
I sat back down at my desk feeling ridiculous, and not only because of the fly. There was something familiar about the whole process. It started with the closed door. Then nobody else was in the room, and I was swinging at something over and over again.
The thing I swing at most isn't a fly. It's a number. Maybe it’s true for you too?
The number looks like tuition payments and wedding budgets, maybe more than one. Car insurance for almost-adult kids, which costs about as much as our first house payment did. All good things require family teamwork.
My children are growing up, which is exactly what I want and pray for. But the math of them growing up is sometimes what I'm doing at four in the morning instead of sleeping.
I hand it to God. I really do. I give it over to the Lord, and I mean every word I say until a tuition bill shows up, or a due date moves, and I pick the whole thing back up like I never set it down. Same worry that I start swinging at behind closed doors.
Sound familiar?
In Deuteronomy 20, Moses is giving instructions to the Israelites about going to war, and he is not talking to just one soldier before one battle. There is an entire nation standing at the edge of warfare that's going to take years, against enemy after enemy. These are people who will have to do this again. And again.
The priest is supposed to go out and say this to them: "For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory."
I've read that verse most of my life, the way you'd read a note someone tucked in your lunch. God's with you; go get 'em.
But that isn't what it says. It says He is the one who goes. He is the one who fights. Not that He'll help me fight, or hand me strength for my fight, or cheer from somewhere behind my shoulder while I do the swinging.
He mans the fight.
That word matters to me because fighting and wrestling aren't the same. When you wrestle something you've got your arms around it, and when it moves you move with it, and you can't put it down because you're the one holding on. I've spent years with my arms wrapped around a worry that bears God's name, wondering why I'm so tired.
Friend, I don't think you're tired because your battle is hard. I think some of us are tired because we're wrestling with something that God is already fighting.
Moses didn’t promise they wouldn't face the same enemy again. He tells them who is doing the fighting when they do.
I wish I could tell you that I’ve stopped picking my worry back up. I’m still learning. I still take it back, but now I catch the problem faster. I'll notice my hands are full again and I'll think, “Oh. This isn't mine.” And I give it back one more time.
That's not much of a victory story. But I think it might be what Deuteronomy 20 is actually describing. We don’t always have a war that ends, but we do have a God who keeps showing up to fight it. Hallelujah for that!
Will you pray with me?
Let's Pray
Heavenly Father,
Here I am with this again. The same thing I brought You last week and the week before that. I'm honestly tired of listening to myself pray about it.
But You knew this would be a long war when You said You'd fight it. You said You would go with me. You promised You would fight for me. Not once have You declared that I had to win it on my own.
Lord, I've had my arms wrapped around something You never handed me, and then I've wondered why I'm exhausted. Forgive me for that. Help me open my hands.
When I pick it back up, help me notice sooner. Shorten the distance between grabbing it and giving it back.
You are the One who goes and who fights for me. Help me live like that's true.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.
Don’t miss this
If you're still praying and starting to wonder if it's working, I wrote Praying Through Life's Battles: 90 Days to Strengthen Your Faith for you. You can preorder it now at battleprayers.com. Until next time, remember, God sees you, hears you, and He knows your needs.
Photo Credit: Unsplash
Related Resource: Praying Through Life’s Battles
What battle are you carrying today?
Maybe it is an unanswered prayer, a painful loss, a strained relationship, a health concern, or a circumstance that feels far beyond your control. When life feels overwhelming, we can become so consumed by our emotions—or so busy trying to fix everything ourselves—that prayer is often one of the first things we neglect.
This week on The Love Offering Podcast, my friend Rachel Wojo joins me to talk about her new 90-day devotional, Praying Through Life’s Battles. Drawing from her experience of loving and losing her daughter, Taylor, Rachel shares how prayer has sustained her through unimaginable grief and reminded her that she never faces life’s battles alone.
If you like what you hear, be sure to follow The Love Offering on Apple or Spotify so you never miss an episode!
