I’ve heard people say that they have given up on prayer. It saddens my heart to hear them say this because prayer is our lifeline to heaven. I would say to them, “Please, give prayer another chance.”
Prayer is our lifeline to heaven. #prayer #spiritualdisciplines Share on XCould it be that our view of God is distorted? Maybe you need a new perspective on how God views the world? Possibly, your heart is not quite in the right place. I would like to offer some considerations as you give prayer another chance.
Considerations as we Pray
God Cares ~ He’ll Give you another chance
First of all, know that He loves you more than you can know. God desires for you to relate to Him. He came to earth and lived the life of a man. Jesus knows your pain and sorrows. He feels your pain. Prayer connects us to Him. You can have true fellowship with the God of the universe!
Talk to him sincerely. Tell him how you feel. Your sorrow. Your anger. It’s OK. He can handle it.
You Are Part of the BIG Picture
As the saying goes, “We are not an island.” There is a whole big world and we are just a small part of it all. That is not to say that God doesn’t have time for you. He is there every moment. However, He is working on a plan for everyone.
Sometimes the things we are asking take time or aren’t the best thing for us at this particular time. Ask God to give you a new perspective. He may have us in a hard place to give us a specific opportunity or direction in life. Don’t think that you cannot ask God, but with the asking, open your heart to hear His desires for you, as well.
Prayer is the courageous act of bringing our authentic desires before God. Prayer is the place where, in Jesus’ name, we meet a holy God with all of our humanity hanging out. In our bravest moments of unscripted, unedited prayer, we find ourselves telling God what we want, how we’re afraid to want this, how we fear he’ll withhold, how we fail to trust, and to worship and to reverence. We allow ourselves to see – and be seen. In this struggle, prayerful and raw, we willingly wait for the mercies of God to deliver us into the abiding belief that He is good. Prayer, bold and beautiful and brave, takes on the quality of our struggle to surrender to the God who is holy, to the God whose holiness produces our surprise.”
Jen Pollock Michel, Teach Us to Want
Don’t Give Up on Your Prayers
Remember, Some blessings take time. Some answers come only after years of trusting and believing. If you have opened your heart to the will of God, keep on praying, even if your heart is breaking.
Our short-term solutions will always fall woefully short of God's redemptive plan. #spiritualdisciplines #prayer @susielarson Share on XOftentimes our heartaches and our unfulfilled heart’s desires skew our perspective and keep us thinking small. We need to learn to crawl out of our small story so we can see all that God is up to, in, and around us. Because He is, and it’s awesome.
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Our short-term solutions will always fall woefully short of God’s redemptive plan. And those short-term solutions will often cause us more trouble than we ever bargained for.
Susie Larson, Your Powerful Prayers
Abraham and Sarah Gave Up
How they longed for a child. They hoped and prayed for a very long time. Then they came up with their own solution. To have a child through Sara’s servant, Hagar. Then later, the son God promised is born to Sarah. Oh my! The competition. The fussing and fighting. That didn’t turn out well at all.
You see, when we take things into our own hands, we usually make a big mess of things. Come on now, you know it’s the truth. Just keep waiting and trusting in God. His plans are always the best.
Keeping trusting and waiting on God, His plans are always the best. #prayer #spiritualdisciplines Share on X
If you give up the life you thought you needed, you’ll find yourself getting more of God Himself. And He will so satisfy your heart that all other passions will be consumed by your longing for Him.
Bruce Wilkenson, Beyond Jabez
When you admitted and turned from your sins and asked Jesus to forgive you, you became a child of God. Your name was written in the Book of Life. You are a citizen of heaven. God loves you and wants to give you the best.
Who among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him.
Matthew 7:9-11, CSB
There is One Point that Must Be Looked At
Most importantly, you are an Heir of God… aren’t you? Do you remember the day that you knelt down and confessed your sins to God? Have you given your life over to Jesus, repented of your sins? Are you truly a Child of God? Because these are the ones to whom the Heavenly Father gives good things. These are the prayers He hears.
If you haven’t given your life to Him, today is the day to do that. It’s as simple as A, B, C.
- Admit that you are a sinner.
- Believe the Jesus died for your sins
- Confess Your Sins and turn away from sin.
This is the first prayer you need to pray
Lord Jesus, I know that I have sinned and I need Your forgiveness and pardon. I believe that You died and rose again for my sins. Now, I accept You as my personal Savior. I will forsake my sinful life. I know that Your grace and power will enable me to live for You. Thank You, Jesus, for saving me and for giving me a new life. Amen
https://nazarene.org/how-know-jesus
If you would like more information about knowing Christ, please follow this link.
Pray His Promises
Finally, I would encourage you to pray the scriptures. Get yourself a notebook or journal in which to record your prayers. Write the person or request at the top of a page. Then write out scripture that you feel shows that this request would follow along with the will of God.
Leave the rest of this page open to record anything that encourages you that the request is being answered. And record the date and story once your prayer has been answered or a step has been made in that direction.
This gives you a record of all the answered prayers. You will be able to occasionally go through the pages and praise God for the many, many blessings He has bestowed on you.
Your Powerful Prayers
These are just a few thoughts that I have gleaned and made my own from Susie Larson’s book, Your Powerful Prayers. I would strongly urge you to get a copy of the book for your own. There are many, many more things to help you as you give prayer another chance.
God bless;
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P.S. My hope at the beginning of the year was to rediscover and write about spiritual disciplines. I was drawn away from this when our family learned that we had two months to move. Now we are settled and I am turning my thoughts back to this goal. Follow this blog to learn more with me on the spiritual disciplines. There is a sign up below on the blue bar.
Pastor’s Wife (retired) & Chronic Pain Warrior blogs about how to make it through anything by relating her own life experiences to her writing. She is passionate about her love for the Lord and desires to spread that passion to others. She has a great desire to encourage women who are following behind her.
Prayer can be a frustrating endeavor at times. But if we persevere, it is also a calming, peaceful, life-giving endeavor. Great post.
You are right about that. I think it might be a heart issue in many cases although there are certainly other times when our prayers seem to bounce off of the ceiling. Thanks for coming by. God bless.
No matter how long we have been traveling this pathway of following Jesus, there are still times when we need to give prayer a second chance! I am so grateful that He keeps calling us to spend time with Him, resting in His presence in prayer. Blessings and love to you, dear Mandy!
Yes, indeed. And prayer makes all the difference