Why Pray?

2 Chronicles 20:20 Have faith in the Lord your God.

I have spent this day in prayer for Lindsey (see next post down for details), I put on praise music and worshiped God, I thought, reflected, sought the scriptures and soon the Holy Spirit began to form a path in my thoughts that led me to a truth that I had forgotten about. I knew that there was scripture that said we could ask God to change His mind about something, but it just didn't seem right to do such a thing so I prayed and sought for truth regarding this and God led me to it! In the book of Genesis, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were evil beyond repair so God said that His wrath would come down on the cities and destroy them and their inhabitants. Abram, a man of God, pleaded with God that if he could find righteous people in the city then would God spare them? Abram said to God, "Surely You will not destroy the righteous along with the wicked?" God heard Abram's request and changed the course of action to deliver his nephew Lot and his family from Sodom for they were the only righteous left. God listened to Abram His servant and honored his request. (Read Genesis 18:16-33).

Moses pleaded with God several times to save the Israelites from destruction because of their turning to false idols over and over again and their constant complaining and lack of faith in God. (Read Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.) Moses pleaded on behalf of God's people for God to restrain His hand from destroying them even though the people themselves did not pray for forgiveness! God listened to His servant Moses and honored His requests.

God wants us to intercede with prayer! He wants us to be unrelenting in our requests for His kindness and deliverance! God wants our faith to be a verb, an action, not a sleeping giant! As I kept praying for God to reveal the one biblical truth that I knew was there but couldn't remember, He opened my eyes to it! In the book of Luke, chapter 18:1-8, is the story of the Persistent Widow, who went back and back and back to an indifferent and ungodly Judge for justice until he finally relented to her request just to get her to go away! After the parable Jesus then speaks, "Listen to the answer of the unjust Judge, and will not God bring about justice for His chosen one's who cry out to Him day and night? Will He keep putting them off? I tell you, He will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?" God wants a hungry determined prayer filled with faith and confidence! He wants us to want it answered so bad that we will not relent in our asking, seeking and knocking! He wants us to want it as bad as He wants to give it!

I sat before God today and asked Him to change His mind about taking Lindsey home to Him. I asked Him to change the course that she is on, with her little body twisted and dying and to re-chart a new course of complete healing and a long life here on earth so she can tell others about His goodness and power! Yes, I asked God to change His plans for Lindsey and at first it didn't feel right but the Word of God tells me to go to Him boldly and that it is alright to ask Him to change His course, so I did. God wants us to have that kind of faith! He searches the earth for a righteous and faithful person! Be that person! Stop practising an impotent faith that says to your heart that you should just settle for whatever happens! That is NOT what God wants! He wants faith, undoubted, unshakable faith, a faith that is so determined and sure that "no weapon formed against it would prosper" (Isaiah 54:17)! If God searches the whole earth will He see our faith? I cowered for years squeaking out weak, ineffective prayers because I just supposed that God was going to do what He wanted anyway! Lindsey's fight for her very life has caused me to search for God's truth regarding prayer. We are to intercede for each other (1 Timothy 2:1), then the Holy Spirit takes our requests and interprets them to God (Romans 8:26-27), Jesus then intercedes for us to the Father (Romans 8:34b & Hebrews 7:25b) and as it reads in Romans 8:27,28...He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

Give me more faith in You Lord, for I've used up what I had, I only poured out bits at a time, so what little I had would not run out. Forgive me for doubting You and thinking that Your power had limits. Forgive me for entertaining and believing thoughts that You didn't care what I thought or wanted. Search my heart and know me, test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting (Psalm 139:23,24). Fill me to overflowing and let it spill all over the place, make me a vessel that lets it flow through and not one that holds it back, believing that it must be rationed. Pour through me into other lives, the bountiful storehouses of your faith and never let my heart run dry again! Yes Lord, I know that it's through trials that my faith increases and I trust You however You choose to provide that faith to me! You say throughout the Gospels that it was a person's faith that healed them, saved them, fed them, delivered them....It was their faith "in You" not the faith in themselves to produce it on their own.  GIVE ME THAT FAITH!

You also say that we should have the faith of a child, Our faith is never about how much we can muster up, it's always about how much we believe that YOU are able! That's what makes it child-like because it's not about believing in ourselves but trusting in someone bigger! A child's prayer is one of total surrender, complete belief and unreserved trust. They call upon God with full assurance that He will always take care of the next step! GIVE ME THAT FAITH LORD! Don't let my heart be the one that sits on the sideline and wishes for the best or thinks that my prayers don't really mean anything because You've already determined the outcome. Let me see with clear eyes that You are waiting to see me stand up and stand firm, calling out to You with unbridled faith to hear my pleas! I know that there will be times Lord when Your sovereign will must be done, but don't ever let that reduce the fervency of my prayers. Whether You intercede with healing and deliverance or "Your" perfect will is done, I will still praise Your name and see You "in it"! Thank you for using Lindsey's circumstance to reveal this powerful truth to me and to so many others! Blessed be Your name! Hear our prayers Oh Lord, and be merciful. Amen

I was talking with God yesterday and He spoke something very wise to my heart ...."What you look for in a circumstance is exactly what you will find! You can look for the good or you can look for the bad and you will find exactly what you looked for! Even in times of despair you can see God's goodness if you just look hard enough. And the same can be true that there are people that can find bad, even in the most wonderful of circumstances! God's presence is always there, if you search for Him with all your heart.

Matthew 9:22 "Take heart daughter," Jesus said, "Your faith has healed you."

Matthew 9:29 "According to your faith, will it be done unto you"...and their sight was restored.

Matthew 14:29 "Come" said Jesus, so Peter got out of the boat and began to walk upon the water, BUT, when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, "Lord save me!". Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and caught him. "You of little faith," He said, "Why did you doubt?"

*I am not a bible scholar or claim to have the answers to heavenly things but I am a Daughter of the King and I do find my truths from His Word. Don't take what I say as your true north but seek only the wisdom of the King, from His Word to your heart. My agenda is for glory to always be given to God and I seek none for myself. All that you need, you will find "in Him."