Jer. 29:11 "For I know the Plans I have for you says, the Lord. Plans not to harm you, but to prosper you, and give you a hope and a future."
I hope by the title of this blog that you are not seriously planning on harming your future and that's why you are reading this. One thing you must know about me, is that I learn from my mistakes. Sometimes, I feel like I have all the answers and other times with God's help and my hot wife to bring me back down to earth, I find out that I am a weak individual with a lot of struggles.
Prayer is a hard thing to get. We all have mis-conceived notions on how to pray and why to pray. After bible school and 10 years of ministry as a Pastor, one would think that I know how to pray. One would argue that I have a degree in prayer. Some would say by looking into my life that I have a wonderful prayer life because I am blessed beyond compare. I have a great wife and 3 wonderful young boys that bring life to any room that they go into.
The truth is, that I have a sucky prayer life. I feel like I am a redheaded step child getting a beat down in a Kmart shopping center with my prayers. I can pray until the cows come home for other people. I can believe the best for people through my prayers and rejoice when the Lord answers their prayers. I will be the first person to pray over the phone with you when you are struggling, I can even pray with my kids at bed time that the Lord will protect their every thought. But, when it comes down to praying anything personal for me, I go blank. I have such a misconception of prayer for me personally it has taken 29 years to actually see that I cant believe that God would have the best in store for ME personally. Maybe some of you reading this can relate.
I bought my wife a valentines gift. She wanted a book by Stormie Omartian called " The Power of Praying Together" She told me she would love to read it with me so that in return it would bring us closer in a intimate setting with the Lord through our prayers. I thought nothing of it and I bought the book and we started reading it together. I am not one for self-help books. I try to stay away from the books, where I need to get cozy in a set of nice flannel Sponge Bob pajamas and put the kettle on for some nice herbal tea and run myself a nice bubble bath and curl up to read a nice book for a better you. But, because I love my wife and the Lord I sat down and read the first few chapters. We came to the Chapter of "What is Prayer" I sighed and told her to skip the chapter because I already know what prayer is. She said to come down off my pastor horse and see what she has to say. I am a very A.D.D person, so I sat back as she started reading and I am looking around, and twiddling my thumbs, and my knee is bouncing a mile a minute until she hit one part of the chapter that talks about "What makes prayer hard Sometimes" I stopped the shaking and actually sat up and with attentive ears I paid attention.
After all this time in life studying scripture, and meditating on scripture and praying throughout my day I doubt the fact that God can answer MY PRAYERS. I believe God has the best for others but when it comes down to me personally, I feel like he is Santa Claus that just flew over my house and went next door to the good kids and gave them gifts. That God has other people to listen to then me. I dug a little deeper into my heart and I believe the Spirit of God pulled out the fact that I fear God will not answer my prayers. How can I prosper like the scripture says, if I cant even believe that God wants me to prosper.
This blog is for all the people who doubt the power of prayer. I am talking to EVERYONE here. We have all been in a place in our lives where we have doubted Gods very power to get things done through the power of prayer. Billy Graham, Wayne Grudem, Dallas Willard, Mark Driscoll, we have all doubted at one point. But, the one thing we need to do in this process is drop to our knees and repent for doubting Gods divine Power.
After I read that chapter with my wife I went into my room and started to repent for the last 29 years of doubt for my own life. This is what prayer is, and what prayer is not.
1. Prayer is Communicating with God: God wants to reach out and touch us, but first we need to reach up and touch him. We live in a day and age where crappy stuff happens and we need to give all things to the Lord. He asks us in scripture to, "Cast ALL things unto Him" Relationships, business, work, finances, health, emotions, children. We need God for the Hope that he brings in all things
2. Prayer is Praising and Worshiping God for who he is: This takes the focus off of ourselves and places it on Him. He not only helps us through our tough stuff, but he has rescued us from a future of Hell. We are ALL sinners destined for a penalty and he rescued us. Man, that is something to be thankful for. I want to Worship my God.
3. Prayer is telling God that we Adore Him and Love Him:
4. Prayer is telling God we need Him: I think it is safe to say that we all want to be desired and needed. That is what makes us tick. God is not an insecure God that needs kudos all the time to make his self esteem go up. We need him to save us, forgive us, heal us, deliver us, fill us, restore us, redeem us, free us , guide us, protect us, lift us above our limitations, and move us into the plans and purposes He has for us.
5. Prayer is making our requests known to God: It is sharing with him all that is on our hearts. Have you ever heard a teenager on the phone. They talk and talk and talk and talk with a lot of "I know" and " For sure" " like" and all the others things you can think off. We need to talk. We were created to speak. God wants to listen. There is nothing better then a great listener. Sometimes we have things on our minds that we need to just get off of our chests. Making our requests is a way to do that. God instructs us to ask for our "Daily Bread"
What makes prayer hard??
1. I am not sure how to pray! This is one of the top comments I get on prayer. People think of "Meet the Faukers" movie. Where Ben Stiller has never prayed and he was asked to say Grace for the dinner. "Oh Holy of Hosts, day by day by day by day" It is a great and funny depiction of how people feel their first time. There is no school on prayer. No one can teach you how to pray word by word. When we ask the Lord into our lives he has placed his Holy Spirit inside of us, The Holy Spirit enables us to open and mouths and say whats on our hearts. Its like having a convo at Starbucks with your best friend. You just start talking and the Holy Spirit takes care of the rest.
2. I find prayer difficult because I do not do it well! If you have some insecurities with prayer, the best thing to do is keep praying. You cant master something you never do. Its says in the word to "pray without seasing" Never stop.
3. I find praying difficult because down deep I doubt whether prayer really works! Just like you, I am in the same boat. Doubt does not come from God. We need to trust that God has our best interests at heart, not to mention, his timing is ultimately better then ours.
4. I am not good enough for him to answer my prayers!
Now this is the most REAL statement on prayer. I love these people the most and 9 times out of 10 they CAN PRAY.....They understand the true meaning of why we need Jesus in the first place. WE AREN'T GOOD ENOUGH.........We all sin, we have all fall short of the Glory of God, that is why Jesus dies such a painful and gruesome death. For the very purpose of us to draw to him in prayer in adoration of his amazing love for you and for me. We do not deserve his love, but man he has given it to us. God will answer your prayers in his way and timing.
It is harmful to plan for our future with doubt in our hearts. God wants us to pray. He longs for a relationship. He wants to give you and me a prosperous future because we are in his family. Lets leave all our preconceived versions of prayer at the door and just come humbly before him and lift ALL things to him.
God has big plans, lets find out what they are.
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