Big prayers!

I’ve always dreamed and prayed big…until life slows down, and it doesn’t seem like my prayers are being heard.

At times, I’ve felt this burning deep inside that says, “Go for it! Ask me anything! Have courage! Dream Big!”

At other times, I feel like a nobody who’s prayers just bounce off the ceiling as I sit all alone.

I just started reading the book, The Circle Maker, by Mark Batterson. It’s about praying big prayers. In fact, he says that God doesn’t answer vague prayers. That hit me. Do you find yourself just praying to get through the day? Praying that your family would just get along? That you’d just have enough money to make it through the week?

God is huge!!! He does more than we could ever even think to ask or imagine. He’s powerful and he likes to show it! He is Almighty! He’s the King of the Universe!

When the only prayers we ask him are things that will probably work out alright anyway, or that don’t really change anything, we’re limiting him from doing what he loves to do.

What if we believed that he really could do those things our hearts have longed for most of our lives? What if he actually put those longings there in the first place? What if we spent a little time and thought through all the areas of our lives, and asked God what he’d like to do in those areas? What if we listened? Then what if we actually prayed that he would do all of that and more?

Our lives would change!!

I actually drew circles in my journal yesterday, with each family member, and all the issues in my life in different circles. As I prayed through them, I started to feel something stirring deep inside me. It’s hard to describe, but I know God was pushing me to pray harder, to ask for more, to go for it. I felt like he was urging me on to ask him for everything I’ve been too afraid to ask, or too afraid he wouldn’t answer. It really was amazing. I started writing in my journal and the words poured out. I asked and asked! I reminded God that he was the one who put those dreams there all those years ago. I got more and more specific.

I know God doesn’t always answer prayer in the way we want him to. Bad things happen: people don’t always recover, marriages don’t always work out, we don’t always have the money for everything we need, abuse and pain are real.

But, what if we got on board with God’s plan? What if we asked what he wanted for our lives, and then started praying for those things? What if it set our hearts on fire to the point where we couldn’t NOT pray?

That’s where I’m at! I have to pray for these things. I have to pray for healing, for reconciliation, for growth, for restoration!

I’m tired of praying that God will bless my meal, and protect me each day.

No more wimpy prayers!! I’m going Big!

Won’t you join me?

This post written by Colorado Life Coach, Carrie O’Toole, M.A.