This just in from our global tribe of 1.5 Million online followers: I have doubt about everything in my life. My job and relationships and family and my money. All of it. And when I pray, I do NOT expect God to answer me. I doubt anything “really good” will ever come into my life. How do I break that thinking?
This is a great question that applies to any Christian who prays with at least a little DOUBT. And that’s all of us at one time or another, to one degree or another.
Praying with conscious or subconscious DOUBT has dangerous outcomes: Compromised Dreams; Escapism; Low Self-Confidence; and Fear-based Worry to name but a few.
The alternative–what I call “AS IF” praying—avoids fixating on the imaginary barriers we construct around the negative things we think “might happen.”
“AS IF” praying ignores the negative outcomes we cook up and, instead, acts “AS IF” God will answer our prayer.
But this is NOT praying “AS IF” God will give us what we want. It’s praying “AS IF” God WILL ANSWER.
Christians who block out the futility-based negative outcomes that compromise prayer are at peace in their conversation with God.
The “NO’s” are not UNANSWERED prayers. “AS IF” praying must include trusting God’s answer.
If we do not pray “AS IF” God will answer, we DOWNSIZE the prayer’s possibilities.
On the other hand, praying “AS IF” he will answer puts the FOCUS on a future full of possibilities. Importantly, it IGNORES a present riddled with man-made limitations.
The fuel to power-up our prayer life is “forcing” ourselves to be constantly searching for evidence of ANSWERED PRAYERS.
You’re no doubt thinking: If my prayer life is routine and lifeless, how am I going to find answered prayers?
Fair enough. That’s what I immediately thought when God nudged me toward this FIND PRAISE FIRST approach.
But if we are praying, however routine and lifeless our prayers may be, THERE WILL BE ANSWERS if we look.
Praising God for answers to prayer triggers an incredibly powerful response that is GUARANTEED to power-up our prayer life: ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAY MORE…and to pray AS-IF God WILL answer.
I ask God to remind me continually to pray “AS IF” he will answer and give me the wisdom and strength to trust his answer. To remind me to pray daily and then look for his answers so I can give him praise and be encouraged to pray even more.
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
Are you praying “AS IF” God will answer?
“I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation.” Psalm 118:21
