A month ago Reckless Abandon – which is the name of my team – sat down in our squished living room full of squeaky sleeping pads to try something risky. We realized that we’ve been playing it far too safe these past months after leaving America in August. Reckless Abandon decided to write down some dangerous prayers.
What’s a DANGEROUS PRAYER you might ask? I can simply put it into words as a humble request to God to be placed far beyond your comfort zone in hopes to further The Kingdom and glorify God, maybe even to find some spiritual growth. It’s dangerous because you know the answer won’t be easy. It’s a prayer you would rather not pray for the sake of your comfort. Yet in the end you know you should ask God because of how fruitful it will turn out.
To give an example of these edgy prayers, here are a few prayers that I nervously wrote down a month ago:
- Find my confidence and use bold, clear words. In other words-Have a big voice.
- Break down fear and timidity that I hold inside of me.
- Stand with humility beyond pride
- See people in God’s eyes.
- Have wisdom to share and be an influence to people.
- Preach the Word.
- Change at least one persons life radically by presenting and bringing them to Christ.
You may see the theme of using my voice and words. Being insecure and timid when it comes to giving an opinion, idea and quite simply speaking has been one thing I noticed about myself after 6 months of being in such a tight community. I speak quietly. Sometimes I even stutter and blank out because I’m so self conscious about using my words. In my mind what I have to say is not as valuable or as impactful as the person next to me. I am unequipped to say something powerful in front of a small crowd; let alone large crowd. These thoughts have crippled me from being the powerful, outgoing woman God had made me to be.
Not only my own realization brought me to this theme of risky prayers. In the back of my mind I was remembering chatting with a beautiful woman of God for a few hours when I spent my time in South Africa. Eunice was this pastor’s name. After quite some time of talking she grabbed my hand, looked me in the eyes, and repeated many times with a confident smile that she could “see me standing in-front of hundreds, even thousands, of people boldly proclaiming Jesus’s love and forgiveness”. And she said I was going to do just that.
I know, that’s a big thing for a stranger to put out there. I was thinking “Lady, you got the wrong girl.” She didn’t know me, she couldn’t possibly prophecy something like THAT over me. But instead of throwing what she had spoken over me out the window I gave it to God. God makes the impossible possible you know. Matthew 17:20 & Matthew 19:26. So along with the dangerous prayers I thought “Why not risk it?”
This weekend God gave me the dangerous answers I’ve been praying for. Our team traveled 2 hours to a small village called Botha-Bothe (boot-ah boot-y) to visit our host’s family for the weekend. Her family was as amazing as the weekend.
Half an hour after arriving we walked to a church to throw a retreat for the youth. Being unprepared for the type of audience we found in-front of us we relied on God and everything fell into place perfectly. We worshipped. We shared the how God redeemed our testimonies and how valuable everyones identity is. We also did the “Everything Skit” (which you can find the video posted on my Facebook). It’s a story about a girl looking for love and happiness in the world. She is hopelessly failing to find it and feeling so hurt that she’s at the end of herself. BUT then she remembers Jesus, who has been fighting for her this entire time. And she runs back to Him. And even after everything she did against Him, He greeted her lovingly with open arms.
At this retreat we had 7 beautiful young women give their lives to Christ. Of course we celebrated with a dance party.
After the retreat we walked about a mile to a radio station. Again we were unprepared. But our God full of grace spoke through us. We shared our lives again and wrapped up the entire talk with how good our God is and how He’s always waiting for us to run to Him.
Sunday morning before church we walked a mile or so to the village prison to speak to about 70 or so prisoners plus the staff. Funny thing is, these men seemed nothing like dangerous criminals. I saw them as men with a life and a story. Maybe they didn’t make the best decision, then again, who has? We make big mistakes all the time. God doesn’t look at us as sinners, he looks upon us with love. And God has given me His eyes to look upon these men in prison with love.
There in the prison, where these men usually pay no attention to the guest, the men sat in silence and looked each one of my teammates in the eyes as we stood and shared the nitty-gritty details of our testimony and mistakes with humility. We reminded them of God’s love, grace, and mercy. “You’re never too far gone; you just have to run to Him.” I encourage you who are reading this blog to take a moment to read Ephesians 2: 1-10. This has been scripture that has followed me all weekend. Once again the “Everything Skit” was once again boldly performed.
At the end of our preaching, teaching and worshipping we asked that if anyone of the men wanted to give their lives to Christ in that moment to stand up. We were expecting maybe 2 or 3 to stand. Guess what? 35 men stood up. 35. That is half of the prison. Along with the prisoners; I noticed at least 8 staff members stand as well. We prayed over 43 souls that morning. CAN I GET AN AMEN!?
We dangerously prayed that we could hopefully see at least one person come to Christ in Lesotho. But God supplies in abundance and we witness and prayed over 50 souls in less than 2 days. Now that’s how a dangerous prayer furthers The Kingdom! I prayed that God would make me use my voice fearlessly and boldly to talk and preach. After back to back situations of standing in front of crowds and radio microphones unprepared I found my voice and was no longer timid about opening my mouth. Over the weekend I found myself standing in complete humility sharing my raw story in front of hundreds of strangers and explaining how Jesus loves and forgives. Which is exactly what Eunice, the pastor sincerely repeated over me during my time in South Africa.
God answers dangerous prayers. And it’s not for our glory. It’s all for Him! It’s to change peoples hearts and have 50 souls run to Him in less than 2 days. I want to encourage you all to sit down pray something dangerous. I will warn you that it won’t always be easy and comforting, but in the end it’s eternally worth it.
