Humility in Prayer: The Benefits of Aligning Your Prayers with God's Perfect Will
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As women of faith, we are taught to pray consistently, which is biblical, by the way; however, we are not always taught that sometimes we will have to change our prayers/requests. What do I mean by change our prayers and is that even biblical? Let me help jog your memory a little bit. Can you think back to a time when you wanted or needed God to come through in a specific way for you or your family? Do you remember praying things like, “God, I am asking that you will bless me with a job. God, please get me and my family out of this horrible situation. God, provide for my family in this area of life.” Those may not be the exact prayers you prayed, as I’m sure your prayers are much more eloquent and detailed, but you get the point. We typically go to our Heavenly Father in prayer and state our desires/needs over and over again, but fail to pause and see if there is something else that we should be praying instead of rehearsing our need every time we speak to Him. In the last two years, God has shown me something that has forever changed my prayer life and my time with Him and I want to share it with you in hopes that it will be helpful for you, as well. If you are reading this post and you are not a believer of Christ, I’m pretty sure you can still relate to hoping for a certain outcome and refusing to shift your perspective to see the situation differently and how another perspective could potentially bring about an even better outcome than the one you were hoping for. Hopefully, this post will challenge you to slow down and consider other options and perspectives in the midst of decision making.
A couple of years ago, I was going through something and asked the Lord to really come through in a specific way. I cried out to God like never before and asked him to turn that situation around. I declared and decreed and waited for God to show up. I was a total mess for several days concerning this thing. Then one day, on my way to work, God dried up my tears and downloaded instruction concerning the prayers I was praying. He told me that I no longer needed to pray for that person to have what I was hoping for, but I needed to pray for that person to undergo total transformation. I needed to pray that their experience would be life changing and memorable. I needed to pray for His glory to be made manifest in that situation. He reminded me that His glory can’t come when we do things in our own strength, but that glory comes when he supernaturally handles difficult situations. It was one of the first times that the Lord gave me a specific word and peace during such a difficult time. He even gave me a specific time frame that this thing would come to pass. It was tough accepting the word he gave me, but I knew it was for the best and I had no doubt in my mind that it would come to pass. That experience really demonstrated for me how much God truly loves us and how much he cares about our souls. The experience strengthened my patience and helped me to trust in God. It was difficult to have confidence in the time frame because I didn’t know if I was telling myself that particular date to bring comfort or if I was just making up something in my head. God gave me peace about it by reassuring me that I had heard from him, and it came to pass just as He had shown me.
Fast forward two years later, I found myself praying and asking God to show me what I needed to do in another situation. I was saying, “God if this is not it, please show me. Make things clear for me. Remove it if I’m not supposed to be a part of it.” I went on and on to the point of frustration. Until one day, when I was on the way to work (clearly, my car is my sanctuary, haha, this is the second word from God on the way to work), God said to me, Nolie, you already know the answer to this. You already know you’re not supposed to be involved in this situation, which is why there is no answer to that particular prayer. I need you to ask me for courage to leave this situation behind. After that heart-to-heart with God, I began to pray for courage to do what I knew I needed to do all along. I think it may have been a total of two weeks before I spoke up and walked away from the situation.
I hope you are seeing the pattern from these two examples. When we notice that we are not hearing from God or getting any relief in a certain area, ask God if you are praying what you should be praying. Romans 8:26 says, “And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.” There are a few different interpretations that can be drawn from this verse, but for the sake of this post, I really want to point out the fact that the scripture states “we don’t know what God wants us to pray for.” Many times we come to God with our own agendas and forget to humble ourselves in prayer to hear what his agenda is for our lives and circumstances. He will show us exactly what to pray and in some cases show us exactly what we’re overlooking that serve as the answer to the question we’ve been asking. For instance, I kept asking God to show me what I needed to do about my situation and then had the nerve to be mad because “He wasn’t showing me.” When, He actually had already given me clarity, but I was afraid to act on what I knew. Therefore, my prayer had to change from “what should I do” to “give me courage.” I challenge you to ask yourself right here, what prayers do you need to change? What answers has God already provided, but you are afraid to be obedient to the instruction He provided?
Some may refer to this as getting in alignment with God or a perspective shift, but I refer to it as prayer shifting or humbling myself in prayer. I am reminded of the scripture 2 Chronicles 7:14 that says, “and My people, who are called by My Name, humble themselves, and pray and seek (crave, require as a necessity) My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear [them] from heaven, and forgive their sin and heal their land.” This scripture is preceded by verse 13 where God says that if he sends locusts and plagues out into the earth, it’s his people that are called by his name (verse 14) that He will respond to and heal their land. However, one of the mandates that he outlines in this passage is humility. He reminds us that we must humble ourselves in prayer, turn from our wicked ways, and then he will hear us. As I stated earlier, it is important to come before God with a humble heart and allow the Holy Spirit to guide our prayers and not just rattling off a laundry list of things we need from Him.
Before I close, I want to share some of the benefits of shifting your prayers.
1. You may decrease the likelihood of feeling frustrated about the thing(s) you have been asking for and have not received.
2. Your motives become pure (not out of selfish ambition- James 4:3); most likely your requests are in alignment with God’s desires for you and He honors your prayers because of this.
3. Practicing acceptance and humility will be for your good and you will find it pushes you closer to the person that God needs you to be for others in this world.
4. Indescribable peace becomes your possession, regardless of what’s going on around you.
So, go before the Lord today and share your heart, but leave enough room for him to share His perfect will for you, your family, and your circumstances. Happy Prayer Shifting!
P.S. If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to send me a message and we can discuss your questions and go a little deeper. If you aren’t familiar with God and this whole Christian verbiage, please email me, I am happy to help you in any way I can.
Email: lifeidentified@gmail.com
You are forever fashioned in confidence,
Nolie
