Songfacts®:

• In this song, Brandy Clark takes a look at god-fearing, working-class Americans of the kind she grew up with in the small timber town of Morton, Washington. These folks face a lot of uncertainty and can have a hard time getting ahead, but there are two things that give them hope: praying to Jesus and playing the lotto.
  
  It's a satirical song she wrote with Shane McAnally, who grew up in Mineral Wells, Texas, where Jesus and the lottery were also big. "It's kind of about the way that we grew up and have lived most of our lives, just hoping for something a little better, loving where we're at, but hoping to hit that jackpot on the lottery and hopefully go to heaven one day," Clark explained.
• "Pray To Jesus" is the opening track on Brandy Clark's 2013 debut album, 12 Stories. She and Shane McAnally had been writing together for other artists for a few years by this point; their cuts include "Crazy Women" by LeAnn Rimes and "Mama's Broken Heart" by Miranda Lambert.
• Around this time, Brandy Clark and Kacey Musgraves were both making names for themselves telling small-town stories in country songs - many found it a refreshing alternative to the "bro-country" that was big. A Kacey Musgraves song from 2012 called "Merry Go 'Round" has some similar themes to "Pray To Jesus." Both of those songs were co-written by Shane McAnally.
• This is the song that got Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally the gig writing the music for the musical Shucked, which hit Broadway in 2023 and earned a Tony nomination for Best Musical. When Shucked writer Robert Horn heard the song, he sought out Clark and McAnally because he knew they could capture the rural comedy feel he was after with a healthy dose of empathy.
  
  "He was looking for someone to write the music, and different people were passing music around," McAnally said on Off The Record "Brandy and I didn't know, but that record, 12 Stories, was one that he fell in love with and was like, 'This is how the music is supposed to sound.' Specifically a song called 'Pray To Jesus.'"