How Personal Are Your Prayers?

Throw your burden upon the Lord,
and he will take care of you.
He will never allow the godly to be shaken.

Psalm 55:22 

I love the way David gets descriptive in the Psalms.  He tells us to, quite literally, THROW our burdens on God's shoulders!  What happens when you throw something?  YOU HAVE TO LET GO OF IT!  When we throw our burdens, stresses, anxieties, struggles on His shoulders, He expects us to let go of them and leave them in HIS care.

Think about it...when we pray specifically about an issue, the burden becomes lighter.  Most of the time when we pray, we are so vague and general.  For example, "I have a meeting in the morning, bless me during that time."  How vague is that?  If someone said that to you, would you know what they wanted?  True, God knows everything, but He wants to make sure that WE trust Him with our burdens by our ability to voice them.  How about this: "Abba, I have a meeting in the morning that I am anxious about.  I want to make a good presentation, but You know how I have trouble with public speaking.  Please loosen my tongue and ease my mind so I can make this presentation understandable and informative.  Give me the words to say which will make the presentation interesting."

Give specific voice to your requests. Open up to God about what's on your mind and heart.  Give HIM all your cares, worries, stresses, anxieties, joys, happiness, celebrations.  Tell God everything without fear!

"Could You Be More Specific?"

When Jesus heard them, he stopped and called, “What do you want Me to do for you?”

Matthew 20:32 

 

My Bride sent me to the grocer to get some butter.  That's all she said, "I need some butter."  Don't start groaning and rolling your eyes at me.  I went to the store, acquired her requested item, and upon returning from my safari, proudly handed her my trophy.  She stared at it for a moment.  Then she stared at my proud smile for a moment.  Then she said, "What is THIS?"  I told her it was the butter she asked me to get.  She then let me know that, not only had I gotten the wrong brand, but the incorrect size, and it was the wrong KIND of butter (I had no idea that there was butter, butter spread, with canola oil, without canola oil, with sea salt, without any salt, stump whooped, pig trodden, found on the roadway...the list was endless).  Needless to say, my pride of returning from the hunt diminished greatly.

 

The next time she asked me to venture forth to the grocer for an item, I took a picture of the item she requested, mounted my faithful Kia Soul, and Hi Ho Martian, returned with the correct item.  Why?  Because the description was specific!

 

Consider how we choose to pray....we are very VERY vague ("And Father, be with each of us").  And we are NOT very specific ("And heal the sick"). Look at today's verse, Jesus was passing through a town when two blind men heard Him coming. So they called out to Jesus to "Come help us!"  That's a pretty vague request, isn't it.  Help us do what?  Tie a shoe, cross the street, match your clothes, pick out a good food for your pet, the possibilities are endless.  That's why Jesus made a specific point to get more information by asking them, "What do you want Me to do?"

 

True, God knows what we need and what we want, but many times WE aren't so sure.  When we are specific, God likes that kind of conversation with us because we take the time to speak with Him on purpose instead of merely throwing up some vague afterthought few phrases so we can mark off "Prayed Today" on our card.  

 

The best conversations I have ever had were deep, specific, information, and reciprocal!  Let's start having deep conversations with God and you will see Him move mountains in your life!