What is in your prayers? Who is in your prayers? How do you pray? Do you pray from a place of anger, hurt, sadness or defeat? Do you pray often? These are all questions going through my mind lately. Things in my life seem quite frantic over the past month. I know I’m not the only one with those days, months, or years. You think things are going quite well and something happens to you. It’s like you are walking down this beautifully paved path, sun shining on your face and happy. Life is going great, my kids are behaving, getting to spend some quality time with my husband, work has been peaceful and then boom! Something blindsides you right off that lovely path into a wilderness full of chaos and unhappiness. What on earth just happened? Yeah, I think we all have experienced this to some degree. What on earth? Exactly.
If you allow yourself to stay in the what on earth mindset without redirecting your focus to Jesus, then you’ll stay in that messy place too long. Those well-behaved kids start acting out more, misbehaving and being down right disobedient. You and your husband start to have disagreements. Work gets super busy with almost impossible deadlines for projects to be completed. Even your pets join in the little chaos voyage. Why the pets? I don’t know, but that is just how the enemy operates. Whatever he can do to get you off the path laid out before you by our Creator; he’ll throw those curve balls in the mix.
So, this kind of sums up some things that have been going on for me lately. And the questions I asked earlier have just been resounding in my head the past few weeks. I find myself answering those questions and think that an adjustment should be made. When you allow yourself to look more at your circumstances (those things happening while you’re walking in that chaotic wilderness) and not at the promises of God then your prayer life may get a little askew. One of the definitions for askew is not in a straight or level position. Hmm, my prayers are not in a level position when my mind and heart are not in the right place. Say for example, you are praying to win the lottery, so you can get out of debt. Your heart may not be in the right place.
Thankfully, the Bible is full of examples on how to pray and when as we start to shift our focus back on Jesus, God so mercifully guides us back to that beautiful path. In Matthew 6:9-14 (NIV) Jesus tells us how to pray. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not in to temptation but deliver us from the evil one”. How do we know His will? By spending time in the Word and in prayer with Him. It’s getting to know, develop and maintain a relationship with God. Spending time with Him and listening to what he has to say will help guide your prayers. Jesus also tells us in Matthew 21:22 “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer”. When we are praying out God’s will or His promises, we must believe that we will see it. Don’t just say well if it’s your will Lord… That invites doubt. You must believe that what you are praying for will come to pass.
We also need to know that God answers prayers in His timing, not when we think it should be granted. He knows what is best for us and the exact perfect timing. I encourage you to pray until that prayer is answered. It may be answered as soon as you utter it, it may be a week, month, year, decade or longer. Seek out prayers in the Bible and pray them for yourself or a loved one. For example, there was a difficult time in my marriage and I thought I would just give up. Someone at a women’s conference told me to pray Ephesians 1:16-20 over my husband. I prayed that prayer almost daily. I didn’t pray for the things that I wanted changed during that time. I shifted my prayer from Lord please make him this or that to just simply praying that Ephesians prayer over him daily (or more if I was mad at him). When this shift happened, it took a few months before things started to change. I saw not just my husband delivered from alcohol, but I also saw myself delivered from those hurt feelings. Did it make my marriage perfect? No but it brought healing to our relationship. Praying that prayer, even when I was mad at him shifted my focus from the problem to the solution – Jesus.
Remember to spend time in the Word, pray often and discipline yourself to redirect your focus from the circumstances around you to God, our Father who delights in us.
Written by Marney Ewaldt
