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A New Way to Pray

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It occurred to me recently that there was one main idea behind most, if not all, of my prayer requests: Dear God, fix this. You probably know what I mean, make this person well, solve this dispute, FIX IT!!  At the same time, this came into my mind, so did Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s worksmanship……”. Not a completed work, but an ongoing one. Philippians 1:6 says, “He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.”  But it isn’t complete until He calls us home. So what is my point?

God is up to something

I began to think about the purposes behind God’s sovereign will in our lives–He isn’t about making every wish come true and granting us a peaceful and happy life. No, He is about making us into the image of His Son– making us more like Jesus. And that can take a long time. So when difficulties come along, we must remember that God is up to something and that something is spiritual growth and development. 

So then, let this help give you a reason to wake up every day–so He can keep working on you, fashioning you into this beautiful creation, reflecting the glory of God and serving Him throughout all of eternity.  But also let this challenge you in your prayer life and think about more creative ways to pray.

God is working

Let us first take the most common prayer request-healing for the sick. First, let’s consider something minor like a broken bone, the flu or routine surgery. Of course, we want everything to go well, but isn’t there something else going on when you consider that God is WORKING on us.  Perhaps praying for patience for the injured person and their family members is what they really need. If fear is a besetting sin then illnesses are perfect opportunities for the Holy Spirit to convict of sin and for faith to grow. Perhaps the person has been working too hard and needs to be laid up just for a bit to regroup and relax. Besides praying for skilled physicians, correct diagnoses, and ultimate healing, prayers for repentance and spiritual development are also necessary.

God is working in and through the troubles

Other problems we want God to “fix” range from job situations to marital issues and family issues and even ultimately to matters of literal life and death. We want God to be glorified, and we want His kingdom to advance, but in our human frailty, too often think that that will be accomplished according to our very limited understanding. But maybe more than a job, perhaps being without work for a time is exactly what God has ordained to lead the person in a new direction or cause an unhelpful church to grow in its ability to help others. Perhaps a broken relationship will lead others to reevaluate their own relationships and correct a spirit of discontentment. Even end of life issues are often about so much more than we can possibly imagine. All we want is pain to end, and everyone we love to be well and happy. But that is what eternity promises us. In the meantime we will have tribulation. So knowing that, how shall we then pray?

How shall we then pray?

Let me suggest first of all that we do not fall into the trap of assuming we know what God is up to. It is said that at any given moment God is doing millions of things and we may be able to grasp a few of them. But we should think more deeply than make it go away God, fix this. If we ourselves are the strugglers we can ask others to pray that we will remain faithful in trial, not grow weary in well-doing, persevere in prayer, and Bible study. If we are praying for someone else those same things are important. Asking God to do His work and not ours gives insight as well as compassion. I have always appreciated in a prayer meeting when someone brings up a prayer request, and the leader says, “What specifically do you want us to pray for?” It often catches people off guard. After all, isn’t it obvious? I want the problem to go away. But that is not how we grow, is it? Do you see how much more helpful it can be to pray with a bigger vision than just make this go away? We can partner with the Holy Spirit as he convicts, strengthens, enlightens and works to make our “prayee” more like Jesus.  As they are changed, so are we and possibly even our churches. And in the end, isn’t that, really, what we most want?

Praying intentionally

Praying with this kind of intentionality is not easy. It requires more thought and especially more time!  Keeping a prayer journal is also very helpful as you journal your requests and see how God answers, doing far more than we could ever imagine. We will find ourselves transformed as well as those we pray for and will be thinking, nevertheless, not my will but Thine.

(A postscript is required here as I credit the late Dr. David Powlison of CCEF. It was in one of his classes that I first heard about praying like this. He planted the seed, and I am so grateful.)

By Holly Carr

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