“…you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.” James 4: 2, 3 (NLT)

“Never stop praying.” 1 Thess 5:17 (NLT)

I’ve been thinking a lot about prayer...

Our church had a 24-hour prayer watch the last weekend in June. It was quite the surreal experience. My mind has been chewing on several ideas ever since.

I used to feel guilty about not setting aside a specific time for prayer every day, as though prayers offered during such times are any more meaningful or powerful than prayers that are offered at any other place or during any other time. My belief now is that the power of prayer is not determined by any given place or time, but the One Who inspires the prayer in the first place.

There are so many things to pray for, that if we made a list of everything there is to pray for, we could spend the rest of our lives in dedicated prayer and still never come to the end of the list. When I make a list and try to pray for the items on it, my prayers feel dead and cold, and usually end up putting me to sleep or just being empty words spoken while my mind wanders to other thoughts.

I believe that when God begins to move in a certain way or a given situation, He usually begins with a move of prayer by planting desire, motivation and vision within His people. But it starts with Him, not with us. We simply respond to the moving of His Spirit.

I am deeply bothered by the way some people pray these days. Claiming things, thanking God in advance, declaring certain outcomes as though those outcomes were already absolute fact. Now, if it is God who has birthed the belief or the faith, that’s a beautiful thing, because all true faith comes from Him anyway and is a gift, not something that we can take any credit for. But if such prayers are motivated by a desire to move the hand of God according to our own will or our own desire or for our own profit or what seems good to us, then that bothers me.

If our “faith” is simply a powerful emotion we’ve stirred up in our own hearts by our own power, our own emotions, our own wishes, our own will, or a belief that doing such will somehow move God’s hand or obligate Him to anything, what good is there in that? I don’t believe God is influenced at all by such things.

I hear people proclaim physical healing as though it were already accomplished, over and over again for years on end. Perhaps it’s not healing we’re supposed to be praying for, or at least not so much. Perhaps what we should pray for instead is more of God Himself and for Him to be glorified in whatever happens in every detail of life.

Perhaps He is not always most glorified by a physical healing. Perhaps sometimes He is most glorified by a person who lives with chronic pain and yet is completely satisfied and joyful in God alone, in spite of the pain and suffering.

Corrie Ten Boom, 5 years before she died, was visited by an angel who told her that she could choose between dying then and going home to Heaven, or she could choose to live on earth for 5 more years, but if she chose that, she would be in pain the entire time.

Her response to this was to ask, “Which one will bring more glory to my Father?”, to which the angel replied that living 5 more years in pain on earth would bring Him the most glory. She chose living with pain 5 more years because that was the option that brought most glory to God.

Think of all of the faithful and faith-filled saints throughout the centuries that have died. Many of them died at a young age of horrible diseases after much suffering. Many of them were prayed for by hundreds, if not thousands, of people, including their own selves.

St. Therese, as she lay dying a painful death from tuberculosis at the age of 24, said that she had reached the end of suffering, because even suffering had become a joy to her. Her entire life, from the age of 15, was purposefully lived for God’s glory.

Was it because these beautiful children of God didn’t have enough faith or because the right words weren’t used when they were being prayed for that these people died? May God have mercy on us for thinking such things. Perhaps it’s because He wanted to bring them into the supreme joy and glory of His presence. Perhaps it’s because they longed for Himself more than anything or anyone on earth, including God’s blessings and promises…

Nearly every time I pray, unless God has laid something specific on my heart already, I always ask Him to pray through me and to let my desires mirror His own. And then, until He leads me to pray for something specific, I pray for things that I know can never be wrong, for myself and others:

For eyes to see Him more clearly.
For ears to hear His voice.
For a heart that treasures Him and loves what He loves.
For understanding and wisdom and the fear of the Lord.
For the ability to trust Him completely and believe everything He says.
For strong faith.
For His perfect will to be accomplished in all things.
For His name to be glorified by every detail of Creation, seen and unseen.
For His fame and renown to reach every corner of the earth.
For His truth to prevail always and in all ways.

These prayers set my heart on fire and fill me with joy and peace indescribable. I know that other people are gifted by God to pray in other ways and for other things. I praise Him for this beautiful diversity and I pray that His people will join together in delighting and rejoicing in the wonder of all of His attributes.