Prayers
Too many of us today are prayer wimps. I often hear prayers that request something from God being capped off with "But God only if it's Your will." There is nothing intrinsically wrong with these words, but the extent to which they've been used (or abused in my opinion) has made it an insult to God. For instance, twice in recent memory, I've been with someone who is praying for someone who is very ill. One of them went like this: "God I pray that you'd heal her. But ultimately God we pray for you will to be done." The other: "God we pray for [this person]...Lord, just let Your will be done." What kind of a prayer is that?! Rest assured, God's will is GOING to be done (Esther 4:14). You, as human, cannot trump that. But I believe a more biblical prayer for a sick person is this: "God, heal this person. Come down now and heal them." If someone is sick, pray that they get better. Do you really my spiritual life takes a nose-dive when I pray to God for something, and He intended to do the complete opposite all along? No! He'll honor my faith. Do you think God will get mad at you? I think praying that God's will be done is much more appropriate for prayers of vaguery, such as choosing between jobs, between schools, etc. But I believe the more specific a prayer is, the clearer your desired outcome is, the less likely those words need to be in the prayer at all.
Pray boldly.
--So he answered, "Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." And Elisha prayed, and said, "LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see." Then the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. So when the Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, and said, "Strike this people, I pray, with blindness." And He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.-- 2 Kings 6:16-18 (NKJV)
BOLDNESS!!! Elisha didn't tag on a "But if You don't want to, Lord, that's fine." God responds to prayer, but is not limited by them. If you think that you are the one who gives God the options of ways He can work, don't be surprised when you don't get a lot of prayers answered in your life.
Some may argue that adding a "If You don't want to, that's fine" to a prayer (or any phrase meaning essentially the same thing) is a sign of trust in God. "It shows my faith in Him by trusting and asking Him to do His will, and not my own." No, it shows the opposite. To me, adding this on to prayer trumps the entire prayer of faith. It is a lack of faith, and it's based on our own fears and insecurities about being in God's presence. Your trust in God is PROVED when you pray for THIS, God does THAT, and you say "Blessed be the name of the LORD!" It's not wrong to pray as Jesus did in Gethsemane "Not my will but yours be done!" But we make a mockery of the boldness we have in salvation when we're not brave enough to say "God this is what I want."
Praying with boldness allows you to come before God and BE REAL. Weak prayers are usually a shroud over your emotions and what's truly going on inside your spirit.
I think the big problem is that we don't truly believe in our newfound innocence in the eyes of God. We come to God as a small child might come to an angry parent; very timid, expecting our requests will be rejected in a tone of annoyance. However, if you have put your faith in Christ, you are completely free to request whatever you want from Him. It's BIBLICAL to come, with reverent confidence, to God:
"And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven's Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus." -Hebrews 10:19 (NLT)
"Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." -Hebrews 4:16 (NIV)
"'...I have poured out my soul before the LORD.'" -1 Samuel 1:15 (NASB)
"...let your requests be made known to God." -Philippians 4:6 (NASB)
"'If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?'" -Luke 11:13 (NASB)
There will always be a road not taken in life. But too many of us in our prayer lives are, because of fear, still at the fork of the road with God. Let your requests be made known to Him! Tell Him what's in Your heart! You can't pour out your heart to Him if you're not honest, and no genuine believer in Christ is apathetic enough to whether or not God does what He's being asked to do in their own life. Once again, your faith in His perfect will isn't proved during the prayer. It's proved afterwards, in your reaction to the outcome. Do you think that it was for nothing that Jesus said "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, BELIEVE THAT YOU HAVE RECEIVED IT, and it will be yours" (Mark 11:24)? God is "...Him...who is able to do FAR MORE ABUNDANTLY BEYOND ALL THAT WE ASK OR THINK according to the POWER that works within us" (Ephesians 3:20).
Guys, no girl is going to be impressed if you go up to her and ask her out and say "But you know, if you're like...busy or something, or if you don't want to, uhh....then you know that's cool. Or whatever, if you want to go out that's cool, too." And I doubt God is impressed by prayers of the same manner.
Get confident!!!!!!!! Pray bolder!!!! Tell Him what you want and don't hold back!
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God bless ya, littlelight
I have said that...and heard it in Bible study, ... but Your will be done Lord. Hum. I am going to write the scriptures you listed on my hands so I can lift them in confidence and ask in faith!!! Thank you for sharing!!