In the previous two months God has been showing me how important it is to pray specifically.
Yes, we can pray a broad prayer and God will answer it. But how amazing and how awesome would it make our God if He answered our pray requests exactly how we prayed them? How big do you see God as? Because since I've been praying specifically, its making my God bigger to me than He ever has before!
I was at a youth camp in July and I had no specific job to do all week, so I made prayer my job. I'd walk to the chapel every day with my husband and pray for the services and individual children that God laid on my heart.
When I pray I write my prayers out in a journal. During my prayer time for a certain young man at the camp, I wrote, "Lord, break him." I stopped praying and looked at those specific words thinking how harsh that might be, but I write in ink so I can't erase what I first wrote. If I wrote it that way the first time, that's what I meant. But this young man showed no kind of emotion at all during the week and was just so cold to the things of God. So on I went with my prayer, leaving that prayer for God to do as He pleases.
That night during the invitation, the young man that I prayed for was sitting right in front of me. Kids were running to the altar getting saved left and right, it was a great service! But then it happened. The young man jumped up, turned around to talk to my husband next to me, with tears running down his face, bent over the back of his chair sobbing uncontrollably, and a look of brokenness all over his face. My husband took him to the back of the church to talk with him and it was my turn to sob uncontrollably and praise God! My God answered my specific prayer! (I found out later, that the young man is saved, just needed to be broken to get closer to God. Thank you, Jesus!)
My church often has Prayer Revivals. We meet at the church the same time every night and we just pray. Some of the best meetings I've been in, God's people just talking to Him. Its amazing what you can get out a meeting like that. But, back to it...
During this week of prayer, I prayed that God would send my husband and I the funds to get some projects started at our house we just purchased. Its a lovely house, but it needs a lot of work to it before we can move in. I set aside a certain amount of time to pray specifically for those funds. The following week my husband and I were at a scheduled meeting with a supporting church. They gave us an offering with part of the funds I was praying for, and they didn't know a thing about what we needed. My God is good!
1 John 5:14 KJV "And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:"
I have this verse written in the front of one of my prayer journals. We can ask in confidence, we can ask anything and He will give it to us, as long as its in God's will.
Ephesians 3:12 KJV "In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him."
Having boldness and access...with confidence. We can go straight to our Father with boldness! He wants to hear our prayers, He wants to answer our prayers. I have story after story, of times I have prayed specifically for something or someone and God has answered it exactly how I prayed it.
Just how big do you see God? How much bigger will you see Him after you start praying specifically?
I challenge you to stop and find one thing you can pray specifically about this week. Pray for it every day, and I promise you, God will show Himself to you. Blowing your mind with how your requests will be answered.
Pray specifically.
I was asked to write a post for the Ladies‘ Prayer Advance account on Facebook. Its a wonderful page full of encouragemen, please go check them out here...
https://www.facebook.com/ladiesprayeradvance/
Thank you, very much, for allowing me to write for you. It was a blessing and an answer to prayers!