How big is yours?

Mark Beeson said something profound to me at our mid week service this week (actually he says profound things all the time!) that really penetrated my thought process. "What if God was going to answer one of your prayer's today, would you be disappointed because what you prayed for was small?" WOW! Our God is so big and can do absolutely anything and everything that He wants to do.... are my pidly prayers insulting to Him?


I do believe that there are specific, finite things I need to pray for, but how can I broaden the scope? It's really made me think about the ways I've been praying over the past few days. Is it really my goal for just one small aspect of a huge situation to be resolved or blessed, or do I want the whole situation resolved and blessed. The impact has the potential to be astounding.




Take for instance my sister in law who is battling treatment for breast cancer. There is no way that I can possibly understand what she is going through. As a matter of fact I told her that just the other day. But I know that God cares about her, is taking care of her and knows exactly what she is facing every day. So I told her I pray for her because I know God knows what she needs. But I have changed the scope of my prayers for her. Not only to I ask that she be spared from the ramifications of chemical treatments but I ask Him for complete restoration. I know He can do that. I believe He can do that. And I am waiting for Him to do that. Sure I could, and I will continue to pray for her to be able to endure each specific incident, but my prayer is bigger now and I believe He hears it and we'll see the results.


....Or my youngest son who just recently graduated from college. My concerns for him have been centered around his debt from school, health insurance...the list goes on. My prayer, though I'm not sure was wrong was basically "God find him a job!" But I'm changing the focus of my prayer. I pray that he will find a job that is his passion, and not just pay well with good benefits. Yes those are important. But anyone of us can get a well paying job that is an absolute chore to go to day in and day out. I think when we soar at what God has designed us to be why wouldn't He make everything else fall in to place.


I'm implementing this in other areas of prayer life too. How can I put tiny limits on prayers from a God who wants me to have so much more. Mark spoke Thursday night of a story of a grandfather who gave his grandaughter a string of pop beads that she dearly loved. Later as the little girl was growing into a young woman the grandfather wanted the string of pop beads back and he replaced it with a string of pearls. God wants so much for us. Grandiose eternal things for us. But we often limit ourselves to the small and immediate. We settle for little when abundance is just around the corner.


Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that God is like the "jeanie in the bottle" who is going to grant you three wishes. I'm saying that we need to rethink our prayers and open them up to better and bigger opportunities with God. Instead of "God, I don't know how to pay off this credit card" maybe you could pray "God, bring income opportunities that will not only help me align with the stewardship of my resources with You, but get a handle on the debt that makes me think so small"


I'm so excited about this new direction of my prayer life. I'm on the edge, waiting with anticipation to see what God will do next!