Praying Specific Prayers

Wineskins Contributor・11/16/20

I believe it is important to pray God's will be done. We never know what God is going to do. Often what God is going to do is far greater than anything I can ask or imagine (Eph 3:20-21). What I am about to say in no way imagines that I can know the mind of God or anticipate what He is going to do.

Over the last year we have prayed far more specifically. What you see when you do that is the answers are often more easily discernible. For instance,

A little over a month ago one of our Backyard church (BYC) members noticed our kids needed some clipboards to do their lesson work on while outside. Instead of going to the store to buy some she prayed God would just give us clipboards. After worship another parent brought up the idea of clipboards for the kids and volunteered to go and get some.

Around that same time we had a friend attending BYC who needed a vehicle. His truck had well over 350k miles on it and he was driving from Montgomery to Auburn on Sundays. We begin praying about finding a vehicle for him. We hadn't told him this but intended to help him. When we approached him with the idea he told us he had just ended a lengthy fast and part of his fast was about replacing his truck! Long story short, he ended up with a 2015 chevy that he is loving and telling people the story of how God aligned our hearts and helped provide it.

Last year my Wineskins bank account was running down to nothing and I was going to have to start paying for web hosting out of pocket again. I had never prayed this prayer before but I decided to ask God for the money. Within two days of that prayer something happened that has never happened with Wineskins ever before. A donor approached me asking how they could help and if I ever needed any money to keep it going! Wow! Thank you Lord!

There are many other stories like this but the lesson in all of it for me is yes, pray for the will of God, but also don't be bashful about praying specifically...then watch and see how God answers! God is watching. God is listening. Let us be bold and "Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." - Heb 4:16.

What are you needing prayer for?