Adding Movement To Our Prayers

Posted by benjackson on Aug 20, 2010 in Daily Bread | 8 comments

Prayer is an incredible thing, but it can also be a risky thing. Have you ever hesitated to ask God for something? Have you wondered, “Do I really want God to answer this prayer?” Have you ever asked yourself, “What if God calls me to answer this prayer?”

In Matthew 9:39 Jesus commands the disciples to “pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” This seemingly innocent prayer may have vast consequences for your life.

In March of 2006, I went to Bosnia for the first time. I fell in love with the people and with many aspects of their culture. Then, God struck me with the fact that unless something changes 4,499,500 people out of the 4,500,000 people in Bosnia will go to hell when they die. You see, out of the 4.5 million people only 5 to 700 are followers of Christ. God used that to break my heart.

I came back from that trip and began to pray earnestly for the Bosnian people. I asked God to bring many of the people I’d met into a relationship with Himself. I begged God to show them the truth. I asked God to let them experience the same love and forgiveness that I experience in my relationship with Him. For nine months I prayed for the Bosnian people until God said something I didn’t expect.

“Ok, you go.”

God’s answer to my prayer was for me to go answer my prayer. Huh? Didn’t expect that one. God’s response forced me to ask myself a really hard question. Does my heart reflect my prayers?

In Matthew 15:7-8 Jesus says “You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.’” 1 John 3:18 says, “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” And James puts it this way in 2:18, “But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works and I will show you my faith by my works.”

God asked me to move in response to my prayers, and I had to decide what to do. I believe that followers of Christ often face this dilemma. We ask God to change something about the world. We plead with Him to alter someone’s path, help someone in need, or provide for a friend. We must ask ourselves, “Am I sincere? Is this really the desire of my heart? Am I willing to be a part of God’s answer?”

If the answer is no, then we need to evaluate our sincerity. Perhaps our first prayer needs to be for God to change our hearts.

God may not ask you to respond in the same way He asked our family, but I am convinced that in our hearts we must be willing to die to self and respond to God’s call. (Luke 9:23)