Specific Prayer

I learned about prayer when I was a young kid. My parents and grandparents talked about prayer and also prayed personally. As a kid, I don’t remember being worried about much.  When I grew into an adult, I learned that there were lots of things to think on, ponder or consider. There were choices coming at me from all different directions.  I learned to pray about everything because the Lord cared about the decisions I was facing, but most important, He cared about me. As my prayer life grew and matured, so did my relationship with God. I later became a student of the Word and my prayer grew even deeper.

Prayer can be one of those subjects that you pay little attention to until you’re desperate and need help. I am still growing and learning of the power of specific prayer. I have prayed specific and very desperate prayers needing immediate help and intervention from God. I’ve also prayed for specific people, but in a general sense. I’ve prayed for healing that didn’t happen the way I wanted it to happen.

I believe prayer can be public and personal. I see public prayer as a prayer that is genuine but leads the public on a simple prayer journey.  I see private prayer as holding nothing back – everything on the table, no secrets. The Lord knows everything about me – my deepest secrets. When I pray privately, those secrets and struggles should be laid out before Him. Confession is my agreement with the Lord about how to categorize my struggles with sin.

Abraham was getting very old and concerned about finding the right wife for Isaac. He called in a trusted servant and gave his specific instructions about the mission. He reminded the servant that the Lord would send an angel ahead of him to help. The servant prays a simple, but specific prayer when he’s on the mission. Check this out….

¹² “O Lord, God of my master, Abraham,” he prayed. “Please give me success today, and show unfailing love to my master, Abraham.  ¹³ See, I am standing here beside this spring, and the young women of the town are coming out to draw water. ¹⁴ This is my request. I will ask one of them, ‘Please give me a drink from your jug.’ If she says, ‘Yes, have a drink, and I will water your camels, too!’—let her be the one you have selected as Isaac’s wife. This is how I will know that you have shown unfailing love to my master.”(Genesis 24:12-14 NLT)

I believe the Lord loves it when I pray. My prayer reveals the depth of my heart and my dependence upon Him. My prayer reveals what I believe about God. My prayer reveals the depth of my relationship with the Lord.

I want to pray for specific things, but I also have learned to want what the Lord wants. There have been many unanswered prayers in my life that I am now very thankful for. At the time, the Lord didn’t answer the way I wanted, I was hurt, but looking back, I see the wisdom in His answer.

I am praying specifically today for several people who have asked me to pray. I am praying for others, who have no idea I’m praying for them. I’m also coming before the Lord with profound gratitude for Who He is and all that He’s done and already doing on my behalf. I want to walk throughout today in a prayerful spirit as I serve others. I can be very specific each time and confidential and private with the Lord as well.

Pressing On!

Dwayne