Why You Feel Wiped Out After Prayer (It’s Normal)

The time after a spiritual high point can be … rough.

Some years ago I tried fasting. I didn’t love it, but I cried enough that I felt like it probably had some effect for breakthrough.

But then I went around for several days in a spiritual daze, feeling foggy and blah.

I listened to worship music. I sought to be obedient. I prayed more.

Finally I reached out to a mentor:

“Is there anything additional that you’ve found might help? What am I missing? Or is a sense of spiritual exhaustion/wiped-outness sort of normal after a time of intercession, especially when praying for breakthroughs on multiple fronts?

“Or, to put it another way: is this a sign that I’m doing something wrong, or that I did something right, and now need to be filled in some way?”

She wrote back and said, “The women who taught me to pray all said it was normal, like a low tide of energy after a great expenditure. Think of Elijah after the contest with the altar and the prophets of Baal in Kings. We have to choose healthy ways to ‘come down’ … exercise, quiet empty space, sleep, etc.”

Wow! I had not considered this possibility, because though a day of fasting was, for me, a big deal, it seemed nothing remotely like Elijah battling the false prophets on Mount Carmel, nor his deep despair afterwards (1 Kings 18-19).

If anything, I was almost dismissive of my prayers. Because I was praying alone, for breakthroughs that I want in friends and ministries in distant places around the world, I had no sense of what, or how much, the Lord was doing. I had a sense like, “Yeah, maybe things shifted. I hope so. Now let me get on with life.”

Talking to the Lord about it, I felt like he said to me: “Just because something seems minor doesn’t mean it is.”

Ah. So when it’s time to pray, then we pray. And if, afterwards, we need to rest, then we rest.

Lord, thank you that you include so many stories of your followers in your word. Thank you that you give us others who have gone before to help us along the journey of faithfulness.

Lord, let us stand when we should stand, run when we should run, and rest when we should rest.

Encourage us and keep us in the center of your will. We bless your name. Amen.

This is what we pray for, that you may become complete,

Amy Joy

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