God, I want this. Silence.
God, I need this. Silence.
God, do you hear me? Frustration.
God, answer! Dejection.
Ever noticed? When tiredness sets in, so does discouragement. We, then, set aside prayer because we feel God has set aside our most valuable request.
I guess it is human nature – when we feel shunned, we tend to shun. When someone treats us rudely, we stop talking. When God doesn’t seem to care, we say, what is the use? We give up.
Yet, I don’t want to give up; I want to go into prayer with deep focus, reliance and fervor. I want to keep pressing in, knowing God hears. I want to believe, even when it feels like there is no use. After all, isn’t that what faith really is?
I can either be faithful in prayer or
prideful in rapid-fire demands.
The ability to wait well seems to make all the difference.
I will be the first to admit to you, I am so much more the latter than the former. Yet, I want to learn; I want to discover prayer that God loves. I want to go deeper, not to just get what I want, but to uncover what he wants, so that I can discover all the spiritual riches he has planned for my life.
5 Ways to Pray Prayers That God Loves
1. Trust your good God has all the power and ability to give you good things.
If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer. Mt. 21:22
2. Let your motives align with God’s. Then, Let your motivation move with his.
When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. Ja. 4:3
3. Stand in righteousness and trust all things will be added onto you.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Mt. 6:33
4. Keep on keeping on in prayer. Then, pray more.
For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Mt. 7:8
5. Have confidence in approaching God, knowing he hears.
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 1 John 5:14
Can you change God’s mind?
Have you considered that maybe it is more about God
changing your mind than you always changing his?
When we get our heart set right up against his, often we find our heart changes pace. Rather than running a course that we determined was bound to get us to where we want to go, we see a charted path and glorious path. We see miles and miles of opportunity that may look different than we ever expected, but far greater. We find, we get all we really ever wanted, it just wasn’t on our terms.
Prayer changes us – as much as it changes our circumstances.
It steadies believers lives in the hands of their great God.
It offers sweet intimacy between a loving daddy and his beloved child.
It is heard by a God who knows all our deep needs.
It brings back the dead into the very will of God.
It comforts the weak and humbles the proud.
It squeezes in truth to compel service.
It speaks love and signs hope.
It matures our hearts.
It works.
Good word Kelly! So true that we often approach prayer not in a right spirit or frame of mind and that when we align our hearts with God’s often times that simple act will change the very thing we are praying about!
Oh Kelly, I so needed to read this today. I have been hurt by something one of my daughters-in-law said to me. And not for the first time. It’s been 10 years and still I long for a relationship with her that is calm and loving and mutually accepting. But this time I had decided to just give up. Quit even trying to please her. So reading this today has nudged me to just keep praying. I know with my head that is what I need to do, now I need my heart to catch up. I love your morning prayers and this morning’s prayer for Faith went deep into my soul and felt like a soothing balm. Thank you for bringing us to the foot of the throne each morning! Much love and God’s blessings on you and yours.
Sometimes God waits so long to do anything with some of my circumstances, I try to force my way through but, lacking the ways and means to do even that I get so depressed. Between a rock and a hard place is putting it lightly! I would love for the Lord to whisper in my ear exactly what I need to do so that I may please Him and know that He truly is with me through all of this mess. Thank you Kelly for a great view through this mornings window! God bless you truly!
I know first hand that when tiredness sets in that my perceptions are skewed, and the enemy uses that to try to wedge into me. I heard someone else use the word HALT as a way of remembering when not to make critical decisions: Do nothing when I am Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired. It is sound advice. Instead, when I am in one of these situations I like to pray, recall back to God his qualities, his promises.
We are having a series at my church on Prayer, and a few weeks ago the message was that praying is sometimes like wrestling with God. Meaning, we go into prayer with an idea or purpose of what we are going to tell God, but true prayer is letting God tell you how your plans have to align with you. And sometimes we wrestle him, in our stubborn nature. My prayer has evolved over time thanks to a devotional from Beth Moore and has become my “style prayer” because it naturally flows. I got in thankfulness for the good and bad moments, then instead of asking– it is more of a conversation telling God what is weighing heavy in my heart and from there is praise. It really has opened my eyes to this precious time with God. Ok, sorry for the long comment. 🙂