Challenge for Prayer Partners: Pray HUGE!

by | Aug 8, 2014 | Uncategorized | 2 comments

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Prayer Parnters! God wants you to be bold in your prayers, but only when your priorities are aligned with his.

What does it mean to say, “Pray BIG”? I read this today and thought it fit perfectly with the challege to Pray BIG over the next few weeks: If we need a car, does God want us to pray for a brand new SUV instead of some small beat up clunker? If we need a new place to live, does He want us dreaming of mansions instead of just hoping for a room somewhere? If finances are tight, are we supposed to name and claim millions instead of just what we need? Is God offended by our lack of faith when we don’t dream big and pray expectantly? Well, it depends.
Think about the kinds of things you’ve asked God for recently. What were your prayer requests over the last year? Lump them all together into your mind and then divide them into two categories: things that have to do with your earthly comfort, and things that have to do with your spiritual growth. Which category do you pray about more often?

The kinds of things we pray for reveal what our true priorities are. Are we always asking God to fix problems that arise in our earthly lives? If so, then our priorities are out of balance. It’s a spiritual waste for a Christian to spend his whole life pursuing a comfy earthly experience. Yes, we do have real problems down here. We struggle with diseases, poverty, unemployment, and stressful jobs. We have real needs and real inconveniences. Does God care about our little problems? Certainly. But those problems aren’t in our lives by accident—God carefully selects the kinds of trials He inflicts on us, and He doesn’t give us problems just to take them away again without any spiritual gain happening. When we try to use prayer as a problem eraser, we end up closing our minds to God’s important spiritual agenda. Yes, God cares about the fact that our lives aren’t going smoothly. But He cares a whole lot more about our souls maturing.

God wants His kids to embrace His priorities for them. So now that we’re praying for the right things—spiritual maturity, a deeper walk with God, and guidance on how to please Him with our lives—does God want us to pray big? Oh yes, He does. In fact, He wants us to pray HUGE. He wants us to take wild leaps of faith, stretch our imaginations to the limit and ask Him for things that we can barely get up the courage to ask for.

So my challenge to you all this week it to align your priorities and pray HUGE! Spend time re-reading your families summaries, dig deep, meditate for guidence from God, and send up some HUGE prayers! Our teens, the staff, and all the families are going to need them!

2 Comments

  1. Josh K

    Praying BIG! Thanks for the encouragement!

    Reply
  2. Sabrina

    Praying for all the boys to feel the love of Christ radiate through the Ranch team. Praying that God will use the 10 days of the program to push all the boys to a breaking point of realizing they can find a new identity in Christ and can truly be able to live through any circumstance with His grace. May each boy come to gain a new identity that is based on god’s truth and not on the things of this world. May they come to know that they are loved, treasured, unique and are sought after by God!

    Reply

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