Prayer: sometimes you have to make a move before God makes a move

Since month 2, I have been convicted to be more consistent in my prayer life, especially in intercessory prayer (praying for others). My squad leaders recommended the book “The Circle Maker.” I actually downloaded it shortly after on my kindle but haven’t started reading it til this month. And most every month, when asked, I would say that I want to grow in intercessory prayer. But I wouldn’t follow through. Even last month, I really intended to start small, 5-10 minutes a day praying for others, but I failed. It’s super humbling, because who can’t prioritize enough to pray for others just 5-10 minutes daily? What missionary gives up her life for a year but can’t take a few minutes to intercede for those back home? This girl, that’s who. I was growing in listening prayer (regular conversation with God) and hearing His voice more clearly. But I didn’t take the time to bring requests for others to His feet. Sure, I would gladly pray for you in the moment if someone physically approached me. And I’d tell someone from back home that I would be praying for them. Then I would pray a couple times and then forget about it and I didn’t pray through, daily crying out to the Father on their behalf like I had implied when I promised to pray for them. So, I apologize to anyone I ever promised to pray for consistently, because I let you down. I didn’t put your needs above my own and I didn’t fight for you in prayer. However, I am declaring that that will change this month. I have resolved to do better and start prayer habits that will hopefully be lifelong.

A few weeks ago, at our squad debrief, it really hit me that I needed to get my act together and actually DO the thing, instead of talking about it. My squadmate requested prayer for her family and trusted me because she knew I was a “prayer warrior.” Inside, I kind of laughed when she said that. I thought, “If you only knew the truth and how slack I get in my prayer life, you wouldn’t say that about me.” I doubted her but she reassured me that I was, in fact, a prayer warrior. In essence, she spoke that truth over me and into me. It helped me see that maybe I didn’t view myself as a prayer warrior yet but I had the potential to be one and the Lord was calling that out in me. So, I resolved to follow through on her prayer request for more than just the typical 1-2 days, to really fight for her family in prayer and also to fight for others on my prayer list daily in prayer.

I started reading “The Circle Maker” and doing the accompanying 40 Day prayer challenge and bible study, in cahoots with my teammate so I would be held accountable.

[I highly recommend Mark Batterson’s “The Circle Maker,” by the way! It changes the way you view prayer. It has the potential to radically transform your prayer life!]

I listed friends and family members, squadmates and ministry hosts, who had given me prayer requests or who the Lord had laid on my heart. Then I started praying for them daily and circling them in prayer. Everyday, I’ve been setting aside 10-20 minutes to pray for these same people. It’s neat because I’ve been consistent so far and am developing habits that I hope I keep after the Race and for the rest of my life. Drenching others in prayer not only has the power to change their lives but yours as well. Through intercession, you become more determined and bold in your prayers and your faith in God is strengthened as you see Him show up in crazy ways. I’m learning that sometimes, you have to make a move before God will make a move (“The Circle Maker”). He wants us to seek Him out and pray bold prayers and He often waits to grant the prayer until we’ve repeatedly begged Him for it and are believing He’ll come through so that He can reward our faith. Faith precedes the miracle. He’s just waiting for us to ask. The bigger and bolder the request, the more it honors Him, because He gets the glory when He makes it happen. He already knows what we will pray for anyways, but by having us ask Him for it, it builds our trust in Him and fortifies our individual relationships with Him. We know that whatever the outcome, it will be good because He is good.

It’s been beautiful how this month, my team has stepped up in prayer as well. We now try to pray before going out to ministry everyday. We have had team times focused on intercessory and listening prayer. We pray over each other instinctively when a member is sick or distraught. And we are staying in a church so people literally trapse in at all hours and request prayer sometimes. Or our host will tell us with only a moment’s notice that we have to go pray for a sick person in the village. And, every night at ministry, we pray during the service, sometimes pray at various houses around the specific village, pray for basically every attendant after the service (sometimes 50-60 people), pray over the family hosting/feeding us that evening, and pray for whichever people come wandering in after service is over and we are eating at 10-11 pm at night. It’s a whole lotta prayer, more than I’ve ever done on the Race so far.

We’ve all had to step up and pray and take turns. Oftentimes, we are praying for healing. This is hard for me, because I think my own doubt that the Lord will show up and heal hinders the miracle. I’ve learned that Jesus would heal people or perform the miracle to reward the person’s faith. And I know He can work a miracle but sometimes I doubt if He will. But He asks us to pray bold prayers and to go ahead and thank Him for the miracle before it’s actually happened, in faith that He will provide. So, this has been good practice for me. Praying for so many people and starting to believe that He will do it, if not right then, in the future. Because He hates to see His children suffer and He is a good good Father.

Also, I’m realizing that their physical health is not so tantamount as their spiritual health. Sometimes the Lord doesn’t heal because He needs them to accept Him first and believe themselves in His power to heal. Sometimes my faith isn’t enough to heal them; they need to believe too. Because really, it’s not about the physical anyway. We are here for a short while but it’s our souls that need healing. And the Lord isn’t a genie to be manipulated. Oftentimes, people will tell us they’ve tried every god and have now come to ours and they will accept Christ if they are healed. The Lord doesn’t play games. So I think He withholds healing in some cases, because He doesn’t want people to accept Him for the wrong reasons or not really accept Him because their heart’s not in it and they’re not ready to fully surrender their lives to Him. He cares about their eternal state above all.

I love that the Lord is honoring my efforts to establish a constant heart posture of prayer by giving me countless opportunities to pray this month. He’s opened the floodgates now that I’ve set my mind to actually develop prayer habits. And it’s beautiful. Too often, we go to prayer as a last resort when it should be our first. Battles are won by fighting in prayer. Satan would love nothing more than to distract us from prayer and the power we have through this direct line with God. We go to TV, work, time with friends, etc over praying time and time again. We say we’ll pray at night before bed and we lay down and are out before we even began.

But God tells us we should be praying CONTINUALLY, in everything. Really prayer is just conversation with God in your head. It can be 3 seconds long “Please Lord, give me patience with my children” or 20 minutes long. It doesn’t have to be eloquent. Just a casual convo with your Father. So, I challenge you to take 5 extra minutes today to pray to the Lord for others/ yourself. It can be a consecutive 5 minutes or spread out. Just do it. Let’s stop wishing for a better prayer life and actually do the work. Get on our knees and beg our Dad for whatever we need or that He’d make our craziest dreams a reality. And then watch and wait for the miracle.

“Rejoice always, PRAY CONTINUALLY, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
??1 Thessalonians? ?5:16-18? ?

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
??Philippians? ?4:6?

-Title Credit goes to Mark Batterson in “The Circle Maker”