Bold Prayers

Scriptures: Psalms 37:3-6, Matthew 6:5-13

Is He Safe? No, But He’s Good.

Driving a motorcycle with no helmet or headlight on a two-lane highway through the mountains in a snowstorm at night. That’s dangerous. Asking a woman her age. That’s dangerous. But praying? How is praying dangerous? Isn’t praying what sweet grandmas do in the safety of their living rooms? What could we possibly mean by Dangerous Prayers?

In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis’ fantasy fiction about talking animals and kids traveling to other worlds, a little girl named Susan asks Mr. Beaver an important question about Aslan the lion. Aslan, if you didn’t know, is the God-like character in the stories. The conversation about Aslan goes like this.

Susan: Is he—quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.
Mr. Beaver: Safe? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.

We serve a King who isn’t safe, but He’s good. When we pray, our prayers shouldn’t be safe; they should be good, big, and dangerous like God. We tend to come to God with our dirty laundry, or our laundry list of what He can do for us. What if we came asking what we could do for Him? That’d be dangerous.

True prayer holds in it this tendency to push us beyond our comfort zones. What’s a comfort zone? It’s the me-circle where everything endlessly revolves around our own needs and wants. It’s our kingdom where we are the king or queen. Prayer pulls us out of these me-circles because prayer is about His Kingdom coming and His will being done. Prayer is how we realize, like Mr. Beaver, that He’s the King.

Pray: Heavenly Father, You made time, and space, and me. Forgive me for praying and living like I know better than You. Help me to pray dangerous prayers. Father, let the desires of Your heart become the desires of mine. Let Your kingdom come and Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Amen.

Scriptures: Psalms 139:1-24, Philippians 3:7-9

Search Me And Know My Heart

You’re still reading, you thrill seeker. You must want out of your me-circle. You must want the scary-good life on the edge, in full submission to the Maker and Master of everything. You want to have a heart that chases after God’s own heart. You and King David both.

King David prayed a famously dangerous prayer in Psalm 139 (NIV) when he said, Search me, God, and know my heart … Why is this a dangerous prayer? Is it because God might find some bad stuff in King David’s heart and then get him in trouble? No, God knows everything, always. He’s not going to find anything new in King David’s heart. A “search me” prayer is dangerous not because of what God might find, but because of what He might reveal to us.

Think of selling a house with a realtor. You clean your house perfectly before your realtor arrives, hoping they’ll think your house is a quick sell. Instead, they tell you to get rid of the green velvet couch, clean up the nasty corner of carpet where the dog sleeps, and please take down that baby cherub wallpaper! Asking God to search us is like that. He comes in and opens our eyes to all the trash we couldn’t see. Just like with the realtor, we get to decide whether to keep the junk or to clean house.

Merely having junk doesn’t condemn us. King David committed murder and adultery, and God still called him a man after His own heart. So, let’s get over the fear of being found out. God already knows everything in our hearts. Let’s ask God to show us what He knows. Let’s haul out the junk so we can get the most bang for our buck in our pursuit of God’s heart.

Pray: Holy Spirit, please show me the junk in my life that offends You. Cause it to offend me like it does You. Let it smell like old trash to me. And Father, help me to trade this garbage for the full life You promised me.

Scriptures: 1 John 4:18, 2 Timothy 1:6-7, 1 Peter 5:6-11

Show Me What I’m Afraid Of

Yesterday we asked God to search us, reveal the hidden things in our lives, and help us to get rid of them. Usually when we think of God revealing sin, we think of things like sexual immorality, lies, and gossip. These are definitely sins God wants to bring to the light. However, there is often darkness in us that’s even better at hiding.

Is there anything you keep avoiding? Is there a certain responsibility, level of relationship, or step of faith you always run from? You may be experiencing fear. What we fear the most reveals where we trust God the least. Does every single conflict with your spouse freak you out? Maybe you need to learn to trust God with your marriage. Are you a helicopter-parent constantly hovering over your children? Maybe you fear their failure, separation, or death. Do you fully trust God as your protector? Do finances cause you endless anxiety? Do you really trust God as your provider? We all have some hidden fear and trust issues.

Fear tries to call God powerless. It says, “You may have God, but He’s not enough. You should still be worried.” Now do you see how fear is at enmity with God? There is good news. Perfect love casts out all fear. Who has perfect love? God does. That’s what makes Him our good King who’s so dangerous to our enemy.

Think about it like this. Pretend you’re a mansion. Which rooms does fear live in? What about the nursery? The kitchen? The bedroom? The family room? The office? Now, imagine inviting God’s perfect love into all those rooms. Fear and all its baggage get kicked to the curb. What’s left? All sorts of places for the Holy Spirit to come fill you, renovate you, and … well, surprise you with His incredible blueprint for your new life.

Pray: Holy Spirit, show me what I’m afraid of. Show me how fear tries to discount the enormous power of the Almighty God. Father, I want Your perfect love to destroy fears I’m facing. I want to live out Your plans for my life. Amen.

Scriptures: Mark 14:22-26, Mark 14:3-9, Luke 22:19, Isaiah 53:4-5

Broken And Poured Out

You know what doesn’t make a whole lot of sense? Asking to be broken. You know what else doesn’t make sense? A perfect God giving up his innocent Son in exchange for greater closeness to a ragged bunch of sinners like us. So why do we pray this dangerous “break me” prayer? Because it’s the only rational response to Jesus, who was broken for us.

During Jesus’ last big meal with His closest friends, He picked up some bread, broke it, then passed it around, calling it His body. Later, He poured out some wine, calling it His blood. We now call this sacrament communion. Jesus asked us to continue this in remembrance of Him, and we do. But maybe He didn’t want us to just break bread and pour out wine as tradition in our church communities. Maybe He also wanted usto be broken and poured out for the people we’re in community with. Maybe when He told us to keep doing what He did, He actually meant He wanted us to keep doing what He did!

Think about it. If following Christ is a journey to become more like Him, then communion should be not only symbolic of what Christ did, but also a model for what we still do. Asking God to break us is not just a prayer for some kind of graduate-level Christian. It’s where Christianity begins. Without brokenness, where is the need for a savior?

A few verses before the story of communion in the book of Mark, is another story of a woman who broke open an expensive jar of perfume and poured it out over the feet of Jesus. This perfume would’ve cost a year’s wages, and she would’ve used it for her past career of luring men. In one moment, she broke open her past and poured out her future in worship at the feet of Jesus. Today, we must do the same.

Pray: Jesus, You were broken for me. It’s only rational that I be broken for You. Jesus, I want to pour out my life’s work, my worldly possessions, my gifts and abilities at Your feet. I need Your help to do this. Will You break me? Amen.

Scriptures: Romans 10:9-10, Romans 3:23-26, Psalms 51:17, 2 Corinthians 4:7-12

Asking To Be Broken

Asking to be broken is actually an ironic proposal. It’s sort of like an elephant asking to be large and gray. Look for a moment at your relationships, your thoughts, your decisions, your ability to meet all your own needs, and you’ll realize you’re already broken. When we pray the “break me” prayer, what we’re really praying is for the Holy Spirit to break us of our pride and help us to realize how broken we already are.

Most of us Christians don’t have too hard of a time with the idea of a savior. We’ve sinned and fallen short. We need Christ to come and give us full life here and an eternal life in Heaven. However, we tend to struggle with making Jesus our Lord. What is a Lord? Someone who has full rule. We tend to want the peace of salvation without the commitment of servitude. Yet, to fully accept Jesus’ life-saving, sacrificial gift, we have to fully give our lives back to Him. We can’t pick savior and skip Lord. We’re entirely lost without both.

The brokenness that many of us need is the realization that we’re horrible at being our own masters. It’s not much different from the way a new horse needs to be broken of its own desires. As we look for ways God is breaking down our pride and self-rule today, let’s remember He was first broken for us. The reason He is a such a trustworthy Lord is because He is our savior. We can trust Him to break us because He made us, and He knows how to remake us.

Pray: Holy Spirit, show me how I’m trying to rule my own life. Show me how broken I really am. I want to see how deeply I need Jesus as both my savior and my Lord. Then, will You give me the strength to turn my life completely over to You? Amen.

Scriptures: Isaiah 6:8, Matthew 28:16-20, Matthew 4:18-20

Here Am I. Send Me!

Uh oh. Today’s dangerous prayer is the “send me” prayer. We’re all about to go from comfy couch to hot Sahara desert in sixty seconds. Or, maybe not. In fact, if you’re worried about praying the “send me” prayer because you’re afraid God might banish you to some far-away country, then fear not. God is probably not going to send you to a distant land.

Like many of us, you’re probably not ready for something like that. I can’t speak for God, but for starters, I bet He’d be happy with sending most of our recliner-shaped rear ends across the street to meet our neighbors. Read that last sentence again, and smile about God’s patience.

“Send me” means leaving the me-circle we talked about on day one. This prayer is about asking God to send us out of our will and into His. Oh, and just because God won’t send you somewhere until He’s ready, doesn’t mean you’ll feel like you’re ready. Look at the disciples. They were fishermen-turned-pastors, and they did and said some really slimy and sloppy things in their first few years. Peter lopped off one soldier’s ear before denying Christ to another. Then, a few weeks later, he boldly spoke to a crowd of thousands and led them to start the Christian church.

Today’s prayer is inspired by Isaiah 6:8 (NIV). The prophet Isaiah had just experienced the voice of the Lord asking who would go and be a messenger to spread His word to His people. Isaiah responded with, Here am I. Send Me! Isaiah had to have a vision to be sent by God. We don’t. Jesus used His last words on this earth to ask us to be His messengers to all people. The Great Commission is our send off. When we pray, “Send me,” we’re not asking for a new mission—we’re accepting the one He already gave us. Like Peter, we may make mistakes, but we’ve already been sent. Let’s get going!

Pray: Jesus, Peter was just a fisherman, and I’m just a ________. But, I’m accepting the Great Commission you called me to. I’m going to need the Holy Spirit to give me the bravery and strength to pull it off. I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. Where do You want me? Amen.

Scriptures: Isaiah 6:1-8, Luke 15:24

Set Apart And Sent Off

If you’re reading day seven of a Bible Plan about dangerous prayers, chances are you used to be worse off at some point in your life. You can probably identify with the old hymn lyrics, “I once was lost, but now am found.” You probably wholeheartedly believe that He has washed you clean of your sin and shame, that He’s restored you and set you apart. You probably even know what the terms “sanctified” and “consecrated” mean.

Yesterday, we read Isaiah 6:8. Today, let’s look at what happened before Isaiah was commissioned by God. In verses 1-7, Isaiah described seeing the Lord and His angels in a temple. Wait, what? Yes. Incredible, right? Isaiah’s response was to basically say, “Wait a second. I don’t deserve to be seeing this. I have unclean lips.” Just then, one of the angels brought a hot coal to his lips and told him he was now clean. What happened next? Isaiah 6:8 happened next. After his lips were cleaned up, set apart, consecrated, God then asked him to be His messenger. See where we’re going? When we’re saved, cleaned up, found, and set apart, it’s for a reason. God doesn’t set us apart to be a trophy on a shelf, or to get stale in a corner, or to be a weird loner. God sets us apart to send us somewhere we couldn’t have gone with the crowd.

What did God do for you? How do you think it sets you up for what He wants you to do for Him? Let’s collectively leave the safe life in our rear-view mirrors. Let’s ask God to search us, break us, and send us. Let’s realize there’s nothing in us He doesn’t already know about. Let’s fix our eyes on our broken-open need for a Lord and savior. And, let’s get going because He set us apart to send us off.

Pray: Holy Spirit, here I am. Send me.