Maybe you, like me, have been confused about how or what to pray lately. For the first time in my life, it seemed when I began to have a conversation with God I was just . . . blocked. Blank. Empty.
Can you identify?
Everything changed for me on October 1. That’s the day I joined women from around the globe for the Cry Out! Prayer Challenge. What a thrill to awaken knowing that I would receive an email in my inbox telling me how to pray. Others must have been feeling as relieved as I was, because the news that day spread like wildfire: my voice would be one of a chorus of tens of thousands of women.
Due to the viral nature of this challenge—which has been translated into at least eight languages—it’s impossible to tell just how many are joining us. We can confirm just over 20,000 registered directly through the ministry’s webpage as of now, but women all over the world are sharing the emails on WhatsApp, making it impossible to track who is really praying along with us. (One woman alone is sharing it with several WhatsApp groups and has about 1,000 women involved!)
There’s something absolutely motivating about that!
Rather than feeling deflated and uncertain about praying, I took a long prayer walk with the Lord on the evening of our first prayer day and was surprised when I spontaneously erupted into prayer based on the email challenge I’d participated in ten hours earlier. I mean ERUPTED! A flow of awe and worship and reverence and excitement about talking to the God of the Universe streamed from my mouth as I watched the sunset over a golden cornfield. My prayers have returned to me. I’m unblocked!
Here is what I realized has happened: my confusion and uncertainty was both a symptom of a problem in my prayer life and the fruit of God releasing me to something more authentic. With growing controversy in our culture over almost any subject worthy of conversation, my prayers are being redirected. I’m being forced to stop petitioning God for my needs, my wants, my comfort, my provision, and my opinions. And I am beginning to ask God what He wants.
My friend Dr. Karen Ellis calls this kind of intercession “kingdom prayer.” These are the prayers we begin praying that give God permission to disrupt our lives, our world, and our social order to usher the power of His kingdom into this broken world. When things get bad enough, we get past the things of comfort and begin to pray the kinds of prayers we read in Scripture:
Lord not my will, but yours.
Your kingdom come!
Your will be done!
In short, we begin to pray the way Jesus instructed us to. We model what’s prayed in the pages of the Bible. Why? Because God acts through His own words. Hebrews 4:12 reads:
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
I want that living, active power in my prayers. I also want discernment right now in a way I never have before; only God’s Word can truly provide that for me! My prayer life has been complicated and compromised by letting my newsfeed direct my petitions rather than feasting on Scripture to chart my conversation with God. I believe that as we do this with a unified voice, we will begin to see God move in our world.
When we pray Scripture back to God, He can’t say “no.”—Dr. Karen Ellis
I invite you, once again, to join me in the Revive Our Hearts Cry Out! Prayer Challenge. And let me remind you that this invitation is also for the little women in your house and world. One of the most important things I will ever encourage you to do for your True Girl is to teach her to have an authentic prayer life. Don’t just pray with me and other women across the globe this month. Pray with your daughter! And let it be kingdom prayer that flows from our tongues.
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