prayer

Prayer is very, very powerful. It is defined as being in converse with God, AKA being in direct communication with the creator of the universe, your creator. The verse this is based off of is Mark 11:24

“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe you have received it, and it will be yours.” ESV

Very powerful verse, also a verse commonly taken out of context and mis-interrupted. What this verse doesn’t mean is if you spend a week praying for the same thing every day and have all the faith in the world that magically on the seventh day you pray about it, it will come true. Wouldn’t that just be the best. I believe every person in the world would have faith if prayer worked that fast. I’m not saying it can’t, but in most cases it doesn’t. God isn’t obligated to work in that amount of time or any timeframe at all that we attach a prayer to. Have you ever found yourself praying “God if you just give me an answer right now I’ll never do ________ again.” Fill in the blank with whatever you wish because I have found myself in that spot many times. This is a non-authentic faith.

Prayers like this create a faith focused around your emotions, which are ever changing, resulting in being let down because when we read this verse we think of all the things we can pull out of God. We become so fixated on what we can gain from it instead of the real purpose of prayer, which is to connect with the Lord and grow our faith.

What this verse does mean is that prayer is a necessity. I went through a phase where I didn’t see prayer as that important because at the end of the day God knows everything that is going to happen in our lives, so what’s the point in praying. I’ve been convicted over this thought time and time again. Prayer always matters, no matter how big or small. Yes, the Lord does know all things, He knows how every little detail of our lives will unfold, but He wants to hear from you. Once we make our requests made known to Him, He intercedes on our behalf (Romans 8:26).

The most important factor in prayer is surrendering to His plan over your life. To humbly say, “Lord, I submit to what you have for me, no matter what I have to face or let go of.” And once you pray that is when you will really start to see the Lord’s hand in everything you do. When you give up all your own plans and become confident and secure in His plan, the joy you will feel is unexplainable.

There is no special way to pray. I believe there are certain “topics” you could call them that you should focus on such as praise, repentance, requests, and then yielding to hear what He wants to speak to you. It’s so easy to become frustrated with prayer when you feel you’re not getting an answer, but sometimes that is the answer. Maybe if we took the silence as our answer of something that God doesn’t want to reveal to us quite yet instead of a reason to feel abandoned by God, we would start to see transformation. Sometimes the greatest thing God can do for you is not answer a prayer. Just because He doesn’t answer it doesn’t mean He won’t one day. In this situation pray for more faith, pray for belief, and hold on to the promise that one day you will have an answer to all things whether you figure it out here on earth, or face to face with your creator in heaven.

6-26-21