The Lord has no business answering that prayer. I don’t deserve it. This one is too petty. Surely someone else is praying for that one. How can this request possibly matter to God? It’s a waste of His time to listen to it.
These are the things I kept telling myself about some of the prayer requests that came to my mind. I had gotten into the habit of prioritizing my requests for God. I even went so far as to filter them for Him: I prayed over the requests that I thought mattered to God and ignored the requests that I deemed unnecessary. All the while, the unvoiced requests kept burning in my heart as I consistently ignored them.
I knew the power of prayer and had seen it move mightily through my church body. Why was I so hesitant to lay my entire heart before God?
Recently, I watched a dear friend bow repeatedly before the throne of grace and I saw God faithfully respond to all of her requests. I knew that under my current prayer-filter requirements, many of her requests would go unvoiced if I had been responsible for them. I asked her how she felt comfortable praying for everything, big or small, and her response was this: “I know that God cares about me. So if it matters to me, I know it matters to Him.”
Those were simple words that completely changed my prayer life. I had forgotten that it wasn’t my responsibility to filter my prayer requests for God. He is the creator of the universe; He has no problem listening and responding to every request that falls at His feet. My responsibility as His child was simply to pray.
I am learning to offer up every prayer request that crosses my mind. God’s response has not always been what I would have hoped, but every prayer has been answered. Because the true answer to prayer is closer intimacy with God. Big prayers, little prayers, seemingly insignificant prayers…God longs for us to pray over all things. It is through prayer alone that God can hear our voice and He likes the way our voice sounds.
Let us lift our voices up to Him in all things.
“Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert in this with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.” (Ephesians 6:18)
3 months ago
