This semester, God has been radically changing my prayer life. It has been awesome! Challenging, frustrating, humbling, eye-opening- but awesome! He has shown me SOO much about what prayer should look like. By really studying Scripture and what God says about HOW we should pray and WHY we should pray, I have really started to experience prayer the way God wants me to. He has been teaching me how to pray in faith, with confidence, and what that faith and confidence is based on. I have learned a lot about prayer by learning more about whom I am praying to.
In the past month, my prayer life has been consumed with one thing in particular. God has blessed me abundantly with a consuming burden to pray with specificity (but not exclusivity). I continue to pray for other things and people, to be sure! But I do think that God has put one thing on my heart to pray for, and I have definitely been praying for that thing constantly.
This desire to pray has opened my eyes to so many truths! I have really begun to investigate more about the doctrine of salvation and election, and what role prayer has in that. How effective are our prayers? If God already has a plan, what is my prayer really doing? In Luke 18, we see through the parable of the persistent widow that God definitely desires for us to “pray and not lose heart.” (Luke 18:1). So, we should pray because God wants us to. We take it for granted so often, but have you ever stopped to really think about prayer? We get to talk- with God. The Creator of the Universe. We (the creation) get to talk, anytime we want to, with the Creator. He WANTS us to talk to Him. We’re not annoying Him. He desires constant prayer and communication with us (1 Thessalonians 5:17)! Not only does He want to talk to us, He also wants to know what is on our hearts. He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7).
Not only do we get to communicate with God at all times, but He has also let us participate in His plan. We get to pray for people and things, not in hopes of changing His mind, but because that is sometimes the only way we can really effectively participate in His plan. There are countless times in the Old Testament where God has stated his wrath against a city, but they pray and fast, and they are spared! He spares Ninevah (Jonah), Lot and his family (Genesis 18-19), the Jews in the story of Esther (Esther), and the list goes on and one. In some of these stories, particularly Genesis 18-19, it can seem like we are ”changing God’s mind.” But we know that God does not change his mind (Got Questions article explanation). Sometimes, that is simply the best way we can understand something.
So I pray for something, not hoping that God is going to give me everything I want. I pray knowing that I am privileged to be able to participate in God’s plan for my life and the lives of others. God knows what is best, and I must pray with full confidence in His ability to answer prayer, but also with full assurance that He will answer in justice and wisdom. It might be painful for me, and I won’t always get what I want. But I know God’s character; I know that His glory MUST be the most important things; all other things come second.
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