Audacious Prayers

This morning, as we do every Wednesday, our pastors came together to pray for YOU, the church.  It’s a great time of fellowship and unity, praying in agreement for the ministries and the people! 

But I wanted you to know that we are not just praying, we are PRAYING BIG.  We are asking God to do BIG THINGS in our church.  Not so much “make us the biggest church,” but rather “Lord, do big things in the life of every person that we come in contact with!”

• When a person walks in that is addicted to alcohol or drugs, God we ask you to do a big thing: Break the bondage of addiction and set them free!
• When a marriage is on the rocks, God we ask you to do a big thing:  Remove the anger and bitterness, and set that couple on a path of reconciliation in love and humility.
• When a family is struggling financially, God we ask you to do a big thing:  Open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that cannot be contained!

We often proclaim how big our God is, and how great His power is, but do we pray expecting big and great things?  I have to admit, sometimes I don’t.  Sometimes I pray and ask for the minimum.  Why do I do that?  Perhaps because I'm not sure God will come through, so only ask for a little bit, and if nothing happens, then perhaps no one will notice.  Enough of that! God is changing how I pray.  No more little prayers.  No more asking for the bare minimum. From now on I want to pray big prayers. Audacious prayers!

James had it right when he said

“You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures” -- James 4:2-3

Jesus told His disciples that if they had faith, they could move mountains…

“Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” – Matt 21:21-22

I’ll be honest church; there are some mountains in our midst that need to be moved.  There are some big things God wants to do, and we wont be able to do them without the power of God on our lives (Eph 1:18-21).

Will we believe God for the big things?  Will we even ask for the big things?

Church, I believe we should ask for the big things.