From Pity to Praise

God is not bothered by our constant coming and asking. The way to trouble God is to not come to Him at all.

Prayer should be like breathing for the believer. No one day can be boring when God is in it, and God is in all our seemingly insignificant moments in life. 

“A man’s going’s are established by the Lord. He delights in his way” -Psalm 37:23

Prayer enables us to not be victims of this world, but to instead be victors. We can move heaven and earth with our prayers, because prayer moves in the hand of God on our behalf.

“The gospel of Christ does not move by popular waves, it has no self propagating power. It moves as the people who carry it move” -E.M. Bounds

The people who carry the gospel move through constant prayer and dependent on God.

I have learned a few things about prayer over the years. Prayers can supercharge our faith can have a huge impact on the world around us.

Every day I pray for my family’s protection. Just the other day my son called me. The first thing he said to me was “Mom are you praying for me?” In an instant I my heart was going to beat out of my chest. He has a dangerous job and lives in a big city. He told me the strangest thing happened to him. He was working near an electrical control box. He turned off the power and began working, he turned to get a tool, he turned around back towards the control box to work on it it exploded. He was instantly hit by the backdraft. That’s what praying does.

Our prayer should not be limited to minuscule unimportant matters. If God answered all your prayers this week, would it just change you, or would it change the world around you. God answered my prayers for protecting my son, but it also spoke to the other people who were working that day when my son said “My mom must be praying for me.”

Because our God is so big, we should concern ourselves with the bigger picture. We serve God who has said in Isaiah 59:1, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it can’t save, nor His ear dull, that it can’t hear.”

Jesus taught “I tell you thr truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this, mountain, move from here to there, and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.” -Matthew 17:20.

We serve a mountain moving God. A God who does impossible things on a regular basis. When was the last time you prayed for something impossible?

I believe in praying, prayers that are so audacious that only God could accomplish them. Small prayers don’t require much faith. Yet audacious prayers could never be accomplished unless God did something only He could do.

But here’s the thing about audacious prayers:

• Audacious prayers are really answered instantaneously -they require wrestling and doing business with God over a long period of time.
• Audacious prayers retain the possibility of greater disappointment if God answers differently, then we are asking. But they honored Him nonetheless.

We need to stop praying as soon as possible prayers, and instead start praying as long as it takes prayers.

There is nothing wrong with asking God to move quickly David prayed this all the time in Psalms, and there is a clear president from scripture that God not only works through our prayers, but He also works on us as we pray and this means it takes time, patience, and persistenceto see the answer come through.

The book of Daniel contains a powerful illustration of Daniel, praying and fasting for three weeks, until an answer was given. The angel of the Lord tells him as soon as Daniel started to pray, the answer had been given from heaven, but there was a war in the heavenlies that caused it to take longer to arrive. We often have no clue how much God is at work through our prayers.

 Jesus actually taught us to pray like this. In Luke 18, Jesus tells His disciples a story, to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He goes on to explain the power of persistent prayer. God wants us to always pray, and not give up. There’s nothing stronger than a mother‘s prayer that reaches beyond this world, offering protection and love that endures forever.

We often want instant results from God, but God wants patience and endurance from us. It is difficult to over estimate the biblical importance of patience and endurance, and maturing our faith.

I’d think one of the most powerful stories in the Bible is in the book Daniel when Shadrach, Meshac, and Abednego in the fiery furnace for not bowing down to King Nebuchadnezzar’s idol. They miraculously survived, but nearly as surprising is what these men of faith taught us before they were thrown in, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter, if we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it. But even if He does not, we want you to know, that we will not serve other gods or worship the image of gold you have set up (Daniel 3:16-18).

Through the years I have learned and know that God is able to do the impossible, but even if he doesn’t, I will still serve Him and follow Him only. Just kind of praying offer supreme submission and faith in God, and He is greatly honored by this kind of praying.

This kind of praying can supercharge your prayer life, but you have to forgive those who send against you, and pray God‘s blessings and mercy on those who have persecuted you. Not only will God‘s presence cover you I could do this, but these kind of prayers on God.

Even your greatest enemy, or someone who has hurt you deeply, we are called to forgive as often as needed, and pray God‘s blessing and mercy for them. I’m sure that Paul the apostle didn’t try to spend time with those who wanted to harm him, but he still with God‘s strength forgave and prayed blessings on them.

Our inability to let things go and bless others will keep unforgiveness and hinders our prayer life. How we treat others affects our prayers. (1 Peter 3:7).

1 John 5:14-15 tells us to pray according to God’s will.

“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked if Him.”

We can pray, according to God‘s will by praying God‘s word. If we want our prayers to be powerful, we need to learn to pray the promises of God’s Word back to Him. There are more than 3000 promises from God in the Bible we can draw from.

D.L. Moody who founded the Moody Bible Institute said, “When I pray, I talk to God, but when I read the Bible, God talks to me.” It is really important that God speaks to us that we speak the truth to Him. I believe that we would pray better if we knew our Bibles better.

A powerful prayer is more than just words. It’s a heartfelt connection with God that touches His very heart. They are intimate conversations with Almighty God, infused with faith and expectation. Powerful prayers are those that resonate with the will of God, aligning our desires with his purposes. They aren’t self focused or self gratifying.

They have the capacity to bring about miraculous outcomes, to shift circumstances, and to touch lives in profound ways. A prayer that is aligned with God‘s will, and stirs up His compassion, His power, and His grace are powerful prayers.

In essence, a powerful prayer is one that ushers in God‘s presence, and brings heavens touch to earth by transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary.

The significance of prayer in the Bible cannot be overstated. It serves as a direct line of communication between humility and God fostering a deep connection with Him.

Throughout scripture, prayer is depicted as a powerful tool for seeking guidance, expressing gratitude, and finding peace and times of need.