Are You Ready to Live in Your Prayer

“You are currently living at least one of the prayers you used to pray.” - Aaron Will

When we pray, God has answers for us. The answers are based on what’s best for us. They aren’t always a yes and where or how we want it. But the answers do come. I once was told to be careful of what I pray for. I didn’t understand what it meant and it made me laugh because it sounded like a warning. Prayers are our hearts wishes. Why should we be careful? As time went by I started to realize that prayers are heavy. They can have an impact and most importantly because God is not a genie the answers we receive are there to benefit us and shape our character more than to please us. So I’m here to ask you. Are you ready to live in your prayer?

We all know the danger of praying for patience. I remember praying that prayer in high school thinking God will just grant it to me magically. I’ll wake up the next morning and just be patient. What a dream. What hope. What an answer I was not prepared to live in!! The amount of people that pissed me off the next day had me running back to God. Please give me patience, Lord! These folks are testing me! It took me a good while before my mom heard what I was praying for and laughed. It was then that she taught me what  praying for patience meant. “God will send you tests to gain patience.” She told me. That put me in a position to highly reconsider my prayer.

As time passed, I started to understand that patience was not the only one that came with the response that I did not like. I soon prayed for wisdom. Soon enough there were problems in my life that I needed to solve. These, of course, led me to gaining wisdom. Time for my thinking cap again. If patience gave me difficult people and wisdom gave me problems. I was willing to bet if I were to pray for courage I would be put in a position to face my fears; or if I were to pray for strength, I would be put in some difficult situations. This, of course, led to a long, deep analyzing moment of everything I had been through and everything I had gained and questioning what my prayers were back then. I can laugh about it now because I’ve been through it. But I was wondering whether I was ready to live through the next thing I pray for.

If I prayed for peace how boring would my life suddenly become?

Or would it be the opposite and so much drama would happen that I would cherish the peaceful moments and voila, I have peace. I can not begin to fathom how God works or how He thinks. I am just a speck on this planet. However, this speck was trying to wise up and figure out the next move. Just because I was praying for characteristics I needed to apply this to other situations.

How about you?  You’re praying for that promotion, but are you ready for the new responsibility that’s going to come with it? You’re praying for that man to love you. But are you ready in case he has baggage? You’re praying for a child. But are you ready to take care of another human being? You’re praying for the next level but are you ready for what comes with it? We can want things so badly and pray for them but let’s be prepared for what comes next. How do we prepare, you ask? By praying some more. Bet you didn’t think I would say that. Ha! The Bible says “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” ‭‭Romans‬ ‭12‬:‭12‬ (‭NIV‬‬). We have a want or need and we pray; remaining joyful in our hope that it will happen; being patient in our affliction while we wait but always faithfully praying. One of the shortest scriptures in the Bible says “pray continually,”‭‭1 Thessalonians‬ ‭5‬:‭17‬ (‭NIV‬‬). We want that good man in our lives. We don’t know what comes with it or how it happens. But what we do know is that God is in charge. Period. So pray. Pray about everything and anything. Pray that you are healed and he is healed. Pray that you find each other and you know. Pray that you’re compatible in all areas. Pray that God protects your relationship. Pray and don’t stop praying. Maybe we are prepared for our prayer or maybe we aren’t. But the moral of this story is that regardless. Just pray. God is waiting to hear from you. He has good things for you.