If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him James 1:5
For years I have struggled with praying specific prayers. I believed that I couldn't ask the Lord for anything too specific, because what if it wasn't in His plan? Was it possible for me to overstep a line in prayer and accidentally ask God for something that was not in His will for my life?
Maybe you have struggled with a similar fear. I have found that this fear has caused my prayer life to be very generalized and almost monotone. Yes, I was still asking for wisdom and strength, but I wouldn't allow myself to ask God what for. You may be thinking, where did this fear come from? Well, I will tell you that it did not come from Scripture. It came from my inability to understand the will of God and seeking to trust Him. Which in of itself is not wrong, however, the heart posture behind it was one of fear, not full surrender.
This past month, the Lord has revealed to me many thinking patterns I had where I believed I was in line with Scripture, but they were not actually backed up with clear biblical truths. This particular thinking pattern was also related to contentment. Or, rather, my struggle with contentment, but that's for another post. What I realized was that not only am I allowed to ask the Lord for specific things, but Scripture commands me to! Now, this does not always mean that the Lord will answer the prayers in the way that I am asking Him to, however, as His child covered by the blood of Christ, I can boldly approach my Father in faith and present to Him my raw requests. They do not need to be tidied up first. In fact, Psalm 139 says that He already knows every word on my tongue before I speak it! Why would I feel the need to hide what is on my heart from the only One who fully understands, fully knows, and fully loves it? I had a conversation with someone about this the other day, and we talked about how the more time with spend with Jesus and the more you grow in spiritual maturity, the more your prayers and desires will be aligned with His will. After all, the will of the Lord is for us to love Him above all else and then to love our neighbor after ourselves. Another friend of mine says that "you become what you behold." If you are consistently beholding Christ, you will conform to His image through the power of the Holy Spirit inside you, which then will cause your prayers to gradually be more aligned with His will rather than your own. Here are a few passages to meditate on as you begin to pray in faith to the Lord who already knows exactly what is on your heart! Matthew 7:9-12
1 Samuel 1 Philippians 4:4-8 Psalm 139
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