Learning to Pray and Believe

Have you ever wrestled with the whole thing called prayer?  Have you ever sincerely just wondered how does it work? 

Maybe you have prayed and prayed for something and find yourself still waiting.  Maybe you see “her” prayer answered but not yours, and it has you struggling to understand. 

Acts 12: 1-17 tells us that while Peter was sleeping in a maximum security prison cell chained between two prison guards, the early church prayed for him.  

Peter’s situation looked hopeless to change, yet the early church prayed. 

There was no way out of his sentence. Death was imminent, yet the early church prayed. 

There was no way of escape, and yet the church prayed. 

And then the angel of the Lord showed up and led Peter out of prison right to that prayer meeting. 

I had a conversation this week with a good friend about “Can we change God’s mind with prayer?”  I can’t tell you it wasn’t already in God’s plan to bust Peter out of jail. I do know God wanted it mentioned in His holy book that prayer was part of Peter’s story. So that tells me that it must be important that we pray for even those things that look impossible. Those things called miracles. 

Maybe God wants us to have a part in His story. Maybe God likes to hear you ask before He moves. Maybe the entire purpose of prayer is not about what we receive but how it draws us closer to Him when we pray. Maybe God wants to teach us something and make us stronger in the waiting for our prayers to be answered.  Honestly, I can’t answer all of these questions. 

All I know is Peter’s friends prayed, and the next thing, the impossible happened.  

You know…Maybe we can overcomplicate the process.  

God tells us to make supplications and intercessions and to pray without ceasing. He also tells us to ask, and we shall receive.  I don’t think He would mention doing things if it wasn’t necessary and that being obedient will give us favorable results. Every time. 

God gives us many opportunities to be part of glorifying His name when He pulls off these amazing prayer-answering stories like with Peter and the jailbreak. And I, for one want to be included in the story of some miracles of my own. 

There is a lot to prayer this girl doesn’t understand. When you pray for long periods without seeing things change, you can start to question some things trying to figure out why it doesn’t seem to be working.  And yes, doubt can seep in because we are human. One of the hardest things to learn is that God doesn’t always answer the way we want Him to. We have to be able to pray with expectation but at the same time also give God room to work in His all-powerful, all-knowing sovereignty. 

I don’t know how God will answer some of my prayers except that they WILL be answered in a way that will be for His glory and my good. All I know is I will pray and believe for some pretty unlikely and impossible things. My part is to pray. The rest I leave to God.  No ands, ifs, or buts.  No exceptions and certainly not one “what if He don’t.” 

Just simply pray and believe. 

Care to join me? We will dive into this thing called prayer together today. 

Do you need help praying for your miracle today? Maybe you just need prayer for You? 

Drop in the comments. We will pray and believe one for another today. 

See you in the field, 

Susan

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us – whatever we ask- we know that we have what we asked of him.” I John 5:14-15

“Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise.” James 5:13

“Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” Mark 11:24