S7 Episode #11- Rachel Wojo

THE ONE WITH RACHEL WOJO

This week we are honored to welcome author, speaker and podcaster Rachel Wojo to The Collected Podcast! Rachel shares about her new book, Desperate Prayers: Embracing the Power of Prayer in Life’s Darkest Moment and her powerful testimony of experiencing God in the midst of intense grief. If you, or someone you know, is walking through a season of pain, confusion or uncertainty, then this episode is for you! Tune in as Rachel shares about finding hope and comfort through desperate prayers and the power of Christ.

A Little more about Rachel

Rachel Wojo is an author, public speaker, and podcaster who hosts Bible reading challenges on her popular blog, rachelwojo.com, Her biblical approach and life circumstances influence women to find strength and hope in everyday situations.  The ideal desperate prayer to shed light on asking God questions, Rachel’s journey includes losing her mother to leukemia, her adult special needs daughter to a rare neurologically degenerative disease, and her father to illness. She is the author of Desperate Prayers: Embracing the Power of Prayer in Life’s Darkest Moments. Mostly, Rachel is crazy in love with Matt, mom to six on earth and two in heaven.

ABOUT THE BOOK

[Press Release] Do your prayers resemble last-minute cries more than first-response chats? You’re not alone in calling out to God in life’s pitch-black moments and wondering if He’s listening.

Enter the powerful secrets of the Bible's eleventh-hour pleas of fifteen men and women. This engaging book invites you into the prayer stories of struggling Bible characters like Hagar, Hannah, and David. Each chapter's simple three-word prayer focus will deepen your trust and affirm your heart that it’s best to be you before God.

The ideal desperate pray-er to shine light on your prayer dilemmas, Rachel Wojo vulnerably shares her heartbreaking experiences of loss while pointing you to your Father. Her prayer journey and promising principles will guide you from frenzied desperation to dependent faith.

When you finish Desperate Prayers: Embracing the Power of Prayer in Life's Darkest Moments, you’ll know that praying in a panic creates a powerful pathway to peace. 

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SHOW NOTES

Rachel grew up in the church, but there came a point in her life when she had to decide if she truly believed in Jesus for herself, or was it just the faith of her parents? At this crossroad, she realized that God was a near, close and intimate God. She fully committed to The Lord and never looked back. 

At the time, she was actually very angry at God because her daughter had been given a terminal diagnosis. She was asking, “Why would God create a child with a terminal illness?” 

As Rachel grappled with this question, she was able to block out the noise and seek God with all of her heart. The Bible tells us that when we seek God, we will find Him. 

If you find yourself at the same crossroad of faith, Rachel encourages you to block out the noise in your own life and seek God with your whole heart. He is there for you! 

DESPERATE PRAYERS 

When Rachel received her daughter’s diagnosis, she cried out to God, “Why is this happening to us? How could you let this happen?” 

In that desperate space, time and time again, she realized that God’s peace, presence and power were available to her. Rachel reminds us that God’s peace, presence and power are available to us as well– everyday, anytime we call on the name of The Lord. 

In her book, Desperate Prayers, Rachel looks at the prayers of people all throughout the Bible. She learned that we don’t have to have “perfect prayers” and we can be pretty messed up, and God still hears us. 

Inexplicable and heartbreaking things happen in our world everyday, and when we look at those situations, it can feel like our cries are pleas of utter desperation. If we don’t have the power of prayer, what do we have? 

POWER OF PRAYER 

When you are sitting by the bedside of your dying daughter, the pain is beyond description. You feel like you have no words. Rachel shared that she was so angry at God that she said, “You don’t know what it is like to watch your child suffer and die.” 

In that moment, she felt the Lord speak gently to her heart, “Oh yes, I do. I watched my son suffer and die for you.” 

This was a moment of clarity that came through ongoing, constant communication with The Lord. Moments like this can happen when we are still before The Lord. It is in the stillness– the dreaded moment of silence– that we often find that His Spirit speaks the loudest to us. 

WALKING THROUGH GRIEF 

There are so many different kinds of loss, whether it’s a career, a marriage, a home… What we are often guilty of is comparing one loss to another and thinking that one is more difficult. We may tell ourselves to “buck up” because we don’t have it as bad as someone else. However, your loss/grief is still valid. God is not telling you to “buck up”, He is saying “Come to me, all who are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” 

Snuggle up to your Heavenly Father because He knows your name, He wants to speak to you, and He longs to be close to you. 

It’s ok to fall apart and admit your weakness. When we are weak, HE is strong. 

When Jacob wrestled with God, he told God that he wouldn’t let go until God blessed him. God did bless Jacob, but Jacob also received a limp that would impact him for the rest of his life. In Hebrews 11– the great Hall of Faith– we see Jacob and we are told that Jacob worshipped God leaning on his staff. His limp is what kept him close to Jesus. So many of us believe God’s protection or presence has been taken away from us because our circumstances are not ideal or we have experienced trauma, grief or loss. However, God may be using your difficult situation to keep you close to Him, which is where we have the highest level of protection possible. 

It is often in the hardest seasons of life when we hear from God in the most profound and powerful ways. Allow these times to teach you about the power of prayer as God meets you in new ways. 

If you are saying, “This protection of The Lord doesn’t look very attractive to me,” perhaps God has given you a little bit of a limp that is designed to keep you under the umbrella of His highest protection.

Often what we expect God to do is so different from what He is actually doing. He sees the big picture and how everything will fit together. 

THREE WORD PRAYERS 

Often in the darkest times of grief, it is hard to put together words and prayers. Rachel suggests something called Three Word Prayers. 

  • God help me

  • God hold me

  • God hear me 

  • God heal me 

THE CHARACTER OF GOD 

One of the hardest things can be understanding who God is and how He operates. We often look at ourselves and think that we don’t have much to offer. We have a way of downplaying ourselves. However, God sees us as who He created us to be, not as we currently are. 

Time and time again in the Bible, we see God call people by the name of who they were created to be, not necessarily who they are in the moment. For example, Gideon was hiding in a winepress and the angel of the Lord called him “Mighty Warrior”. He was not showing the characteristics of a “mighty warrior” at that exact moment, but God saw who Gideon was created to be and God called that out of Gideon. 

Earlier in the Bible we see the story of Moses. God called Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, yet Moses said he couldn’t speak. God agreed to allow Moses to take Aaron as his mouthpiece. However, throughout most of the book of Exodus, Moses speaks for himself. Toward the end of his life, God instructed Moses to speak to the rock, yet Moses chose to hit the rock instead. Moses did what was comfortable, rather than what God was calling him to be. 

In Acts, Stephen describes Moses as “powerful in speech and action.” Wow! The very thing Moses thought he could never do was the thing that he was able to do with the power of the Most High God! 

We have an accountability to step into who God has called us to be, not just stay satisfied with who we are in ourselves. This is encouraging because God’s omniscience and omnipresence are available to you. We have access to the character of God. We have access to the power of God. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in each believer. 

FINAL THOUGHTS 

Sometimes you can’t connect the dots yourself, but always remember that God has a purpose and a plan!

NEXT STEPS

Here are a few action steps to help you dip deeper this week!

  1. Write out a three word prayer that speaks to your heart right now. Place the prayer in a place where you will see it throughout the day. 

  2. Reflect on who God has called you to be. Are there areas of your life where you have been slipping back into what is comfortable rather than allowing God to take you to a new place with Him? If so, repent and give God your “yes” again today. 

Thank you, as always, for listening! Please remember that everything we do is funded by those who benefit from our ministry. Our ministry a 501(c)3, so your contribution is tax-deductible.

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  • The Collected Podcast is a production of Collected Ministries, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping disciples of Jesus discover and live from their true identity in Christ, recognize and walk in their divine purpose within the Kingdom of God, and experience growth in their capacity for mature, healthy relationships.

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  • The Collected Podcast is produced by Jes French and edited by Jacob Early. Cover art designed by Ben Biondo.

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