You likely often pray and ask God for his help, strength, or wisdom. When you say, “God, I need your help,” that means you still think you can accomplish it with God’s help. And there’s nothing wrong with those prayers!

But in a breakthrough prayer, you say, “God, I can’t possibly do this. It’s beyond my ability. I need you to do this.” It’s the prayer you pray when you feel powerless.

This prayer is actually the first step of Celebrate Recovery: “I realize I’m not God; I admit I’m powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong things, and confess my life is unmanageable.” And, after you focus on God, it’s the second step of a breakthrough prayer.

After King Jehoshaphat turned his focus to God, he said, “We are helpless in the face of this large army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but we look to you for help” (2 Chronicles 20:12 GNT).

You should do the same thing when you’re praying for a breakthrough in your life. First, you tell God exactly how you feel. Do you feel powerless, like you’ve been battling something constantly without any change? Tell God about it! Tell him it feels hopeless and admit your weakness.

You don’t have to be powerful or know everything if you’re connected to God—because he’s all-powerful and all-knowing. You don’t have to be in every place if you’re connected to God—because he is everywhere.

What should you do when you’re in a situation that you cannot control, change, or manage? You should wait and trust in all the things you know to be true about God.

Sometimes faith means doing nothing. You just stand still, you wait, and you trust. If you try to do something about it, it puts control back in your court.

Here’s what faith looked like in 2 Chronicles: “All the men of Judah, with their wives and children, were standing there at the Temple” (2 Chronicles 20:13 GNT). This doesn’t mean they stood for five minutes. They might have stood before the Lord for hours. By simply standing, they were saying to God that what they were facing was too big for them. They were at the end of their rope, but they kept hanging on, because they trusted God to provide.

When you’re in need of a breakthrough, follow their example. Wait, watch, and trust.