lessons in prayer:
1. Stop praying.
Sounds heretical, right? Surely I must be crazy. But what if we started praising God instead? This month, I’ve read a book (The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson) that’s flipped prayer upside down for me.
There are things that I’ve prayed for over and over, pleading with God to make them happen. But this book challenged me to stop praying as if they might never happen, and instead praise God for what He is about to do. No prayer goes unanswered, so I can always thank Him for His response. I’m learning that it takes true faith and hope to praise God for something that hasn’t happened yet.
2. Small, vague prayers don’t honor God
“God, please get me to work on time. Please, help me to show love to those around me. Thank you for all that you’ve done, amen.”
You leave your house early, get to work on time, have a few nice conversations with people, come home, and fall asleep, ready to start all over again. And you don’t even consider that those little prayers were answered, because they’re so little. When we pray such small prayers, we don’t realize when God answers them. And they give him way less credit than He deserves. God made the heavens rain down bread and He saved David from being torn to shreds by a lion and He made a donkey talk. And all that we ask of God is that He gets us to work on time?
Where did our imagination go? As Batterson says, “prayer and imagination are directly proportional: the more you pray the bigger your dreams get” because “if you keep praying, you’ll keep dreaming, and conversely, if you keep dreaming, you’ll keep praying.”
Honor God by praying prayers that are absolutely impossible for you to answer. When you pray those prayers, it will be undeniable when God answers them, and your belief in His power will only continue to increase.
3. Work like it depends on you, pray like it depends on God
The Circle Maker challenged me to draw circles around my prayers. To get on my knees and pray until they are answered, whether that means a day or a decade. This month, I have literally drawn circles around my prayers. In my journal, I have written down some of my biggest dreams and prayers and drawn a circle around each one, expectant that God will answer.
I want to encourage each one of you to do the same, whether or not you follow Jesus. Think of one dream and talk to God about it every day, for a month. I absolutely guarantee that it won’t be a waste.
To show you that I am committed to this challenge with you and willing to be vulnerable about my dreams, here are my circles. Some items seem ridiculous and impossible and not even worth praying about, but I believe that God will work and that no prayer goes unanswered.
my circles:
1. new location for The Branch to be miraculously provided
2. team unity and drive to fight for another
3.family’s legal issues to be solved
4. that I could live in Asia and Italy during my life
5. Eric getting to lead someone to a life in Jesus (his prayer that he mentioned, that I tagged along in, that was soon answered!)
6. for 7 people to hear of God’s love and want to follow Him (stopped praying and started praising Him for what was going to happen: within 24 hours, 4 people decided to follow God)
7. provision to see friends after the World Race
8. the chance to see my European friends Mia and Michal during a layover
9. and one of my biggest dreams and prayers: that one day, I could go to space
Friend, I challenge you to pray a huge prayer to God. Tell Him that idea of yours that you’ve always daydreamed about. See how He shows up. See God work in miraculous ways. And please, share the story with me.
