Dangerous Prayer
I read a devotion one morning on dangerous prayers. It was interesting and I’d like to share part of it with you…
“It’s fine to pray for safety and blessings, but what if you want more? What if you desire power from the Holy Spirit, strength from heaven, unshakable faith, genuine intimacy with your Father? Instead of just asking God to keep you safe, give you more, and protect your life, you may have to ask God to break you.”
I’m finding the thought of this consuming me. I’ll admit that when I pray, from time to time, I have tried to couch my words because I’m afraid of what God may do to grant my prayer.
If that thought wasn’t enough, I read a secular article (Huffington Post) where the writer was recalling her emotions and the sharing with others that she allowed herself when she had a still born baby. This couple had a 3-year-old daughter, who was prepared to have a little brother. After the tragedy, the little girl would announce to strangers that “the baby died.” The mom was wrestling with societal expectations to say “I’m fine,” with the overwhelming desire to not think about her loss only to have her child bring it up when encountering new people.
But this was not the most important part of the story, in my opinion. The mom wrote that when she awoke and was told that the baby was still born, an elderly woman walked in the room and asked her if she could share her story of losing their baby 50 years prior. She did not ask the mom if she was okay or if there was something she could do for her, she just shared that there were other people who had experienced major loses like she just had. She knew from her own experience the angst that she had gone through and thought that the younger women might find comfort it hearing her experience. She had been broken but was determined to use her grief to help others.
This brings me back to the dangerous prayer devotion. Are you brave enough to ask God to do whatever he wants to you to make you a better servant? I wish I could say that I’m there in my faith walk but I’m not sure. That is definitely where I long to be.
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” - James 1:2-8 ESV
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” - Romans 5:1-5
