If people’s perspective of God was shaped by your prayer life, what conclusions would they draw about God? I’m not saying this to be condemning and make you self conscious; I am writing this to challenge you to think about how you pray. Our prayer life is linked to the way we see God. If our prayers are small, it’s a sign we either don’t see God as big or we see Him as big, but not very willing to answer. The people who hear us pray, would think the same things about the God we serve.
We only reveal God’s true nature when we pray huge prayers that seem impossible! One of my favorite examples of this is from Joshua 10. In this story, the children of Israel went to battle against the Amorites. As the Lord began to give Israel victory, the Amorites fled. It looked as if they would escape because it was late in the day and the sun was about to set. This would have kept Israel from having complete victory. It would have also meant Israel would have had to fight future battles against this terrible enemy. In the midst of this situation, look at what Joshua prayed:
12 “Sun, stand still over Gibeon; And Moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.”
Apparently Joshua thought he served a really big God. He prayed and expected God to cause the sun and moon to stand still! Don’t just read the scripture, stop and think about what was involved with this prayer. Joshua was asking God to press pause on the entire solar system. Having the sun stand still could change the gravitational pull on the planets, effect the tides in the ocean, disrupt nature and the people and animals that lived in it. Seriously, what if I prayed that one Sunday morning in church? Would you think I had gone too far and asked for too much? If so, your God is not as big or as good as Joshua’s God.
Joshua literally expected God to hit pause on the day so Israel could see complete victory. Joshua’s prayer revealed a huge faith in a big God who was so good that He wanted to use His power serve His people. Why? Joshua saw God differently than many of us do. He was a humble man that served a big God and trusted Him with all the consequences and side effects of his prayer.
God moved in this situation and caused both the sun and moon to stand still so Israel could have complete victory. He even worked out the details about the gravitational pull and its effects on the planets, the tides, and the animals so everything was ok. My point in writing all of this is to challenge us to believe God big and pray big prayers. Our prayers need to be so big that when they get answered we have to credit God because there is no natural explanation for how we could have pulled off the miracle He performed. If our prayers aren’t that big, it’s a sign we see a God who is too small and as a result we are praying too small!
So how does this work? Look at Psalms 37:4. It says Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
When we put God first and He is our delight, He puts the desires He wants us to have in our heart. He wants us to pray in line with those desire so His will comes to pass in our lives. Jesus confirmed this in Mark 11:24 (KJV):
24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
I want to close this article with a question. What do you want God to do? If you are spending time with Him, you can trust your desires. He wants you to take those desires and pray big prayers and ask Him for the impossible! This is how He does the miraculous and brings His kingdom to earth in our lives!
I want to challenge you to pray prayer that are so big, if you wrote them in your journal and people read them after you died, they would either think you were either crazy or you have faith in a really big God! I believe God is better than any of think and the only way we’ll get a glimpse of His true nature is by asking for the impossible and seeing Him come through! We owe ourselves that privilege! We owe the world that privilege! We owe Him that privilege!
If you’d like to learn more about the miraculous things God can do when we believe for the impossible, check out this message I taught about Evan Roberts and the Welsh revival at Grace Life Church.
