Friday, February 3, 2012

Boldly Pray

"We can't reach our highest potential in our own ability; we need God's help. Part of releasing His help is through praying bold prayers. God is moved by our faith. If you ask small, little prayers, you'll get little results. But if you pray big prayers, you're going to get big results. Matthew 9:29 says, "According to your faith it will be done to you." (NIV). If you're going to see God's surpassing greatness , go beyond praying little prayers and ask God to do something big in your life." ~Joel Olsteen

If you want to listen to the full sermon, I have linked the web address to his podcast below...
Joel Olsteen Praying Bold Prayers

According to your faith it will be done.  Maggie mentioned this sermon to me a couple of days ago.  I am disappointed in her, she didn't tell me this was an earth shattering life changing message.  I have all these thoughts and things I want to do but I keep feeding myself with doubts, I have no idea where to start, once I get started I don't have any idea what to do.  Well duh, I can't.  I need God now more than ever.  My flesh feels weak and broken but I am telling you, my spirit, my spirit is something to be reckoned with.  It is bold, it is ready to get this slow train moving towards something bigger than myself.   My faith is stronger than it has ever been and God whispers in my ear daily.  The holy spirit is constantly stirring in my soul, leading me, teaching me.  In this sermon Joel speaks about a mother whose son is on drugs, who steals from her, had once even abused her.  The mother, every single day, didn't pray that God would pull him out of his addiction, she prayed that God would use his addiction and life to glorify His kingdom.  The son now leads a ministry to help others in need.  This didn't happen over night of course, but the point is that the mother didn't just pray for what she wanted she prayed beyond what she could see, she prayed for what she knew only God could do!  She had no idea what that meant or how it would come about so there never were specifics in her prayers just faith, faith in a God that knows beyond what we imagine is possible.

I have stopped asking why.  I now ask myself what are you going to do with this life that God has trusted you with.  I don't have the slightest clue but I pray with all my heart that I have the courage to not just listen to the holy spirit but to follow the doors that the Lord opens for me.  I pray that the Lord uses my testimony, my hurt, my pain for the glory of His kingdom.   There are two very clear paths that you can choose in the midst of tragedy.  You have this road paved of gold, this beautiful gold masks self destruction, hate, darkness.  This path has the illusion of being so easy, in fact I am sure it is made up of mostly speed walks and escalators.  Then just over your shoulder is this path, you actually have to splinter your hands knocking down boards nailed to the entrance just to get started.  The hurt, the pain isn't masked or hidden by a golden path.  There is no speed walk, in fact there are steep hills, rough terrain.  After your hands have healed from the splinters, you kneel and you pray.  "Oh Lord, I absolutely can not do this, I need you."  From there you take this path, and every time you think you are doing great on your own, something comes up and you are kneeling again.  This path takes longer, you spend most of your time kneeling.  There are promises of a better tomorrow, but you can't see it, you have to have faith that it is there.  You have to boldly pray for God to show His hand print on something and then know that you may never see the hand print.  You have to believe, that if or when He does show His hand print, that was  actually God and not you.  This isn't some dark fairytale.  This path is my life, the person kneeling is me.  It's not that I see my life as dark and trialed.  Even with the loss of my little girl, I am blessed if not only for the fact that I am promised a tomorrow where I will see her again, but for all the blessings I have here surrounding me.  I just know that is not through ease that I realize what God can do but it is when I know that there is nothing that we, you, me, I can do and it's in that moment, I have to put my faith in God and see what He has done! 

So if you wonder, how does she do it?  If you say, I could never be this strong, I could never write about my life like that, how is her faith so transparent, so real in the midst of all of this.  The answer to your question...it's not me.  It's not my strength you see it is the Lord.  As for my writings, I barley passed English classes with a C, I failed a college poetry class because I was caught plagiarizing a poem, I didn't write.  These blogs are written through prayer.  It is the holy spirit whispering truths and me knowing that I must compartmentalize this so I can look back and see the work that God did during this time.  My blogs are His hand print on my life through this time. 

Today going forward allow my faith to hold steady and strong and let my prayers be bold!
Amen

5 comments:

  1. Wow perfect, I am so glad you are my sister, I need to print this one out and tape on my fridge or keep it handy and I can give it to people that ask me that question on how you do it. I have never seen a better answer!! I love you so much!!!

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  3. Each one touches my heart more. Prayers for His continued guidance of your life and your heart.

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  4. I just mailed you a package 20 minutes ago and now I just read this. God gave me a word for you today and it goes along with what you just wrote. Our God is so AMAZING!

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  5. Amazing Summer your in my prayers as always.

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