How God's Promises Are Delivered Sýnishorn

What would God have you pray for?
by Rev. Joel Gaertner

Prayer is one of those many wonderful blessings God has given us. But even the seemingly strongest of Christians sometimes struggle with how to pray, or what to pray for, in certain situations. 

Our verse for this week gives us some insight from a man who had his own faith struggles – the apostle Paul. Paul wants to help teach us what to pray for and what blessing is ours when we pray that way. 

So often our prayers seem to go along these lines: “God, please make Grandma better.” Or, “God, please help me with the troubles in my (life, family, finances, ______).” Or, “God, I don’t know how much more I can take. Please make things better.” And similar types of prayers. 

None of those prayers are wrong, but Paul aims to teach us that in every situation in life, there is something else which God would have us pray for – a stronger faith and trust in God’s plan. 

Paul first of all teaches us how to pray for a stronger faith – “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.” An easy way to understand those words is to know that God wants us to turn to Him to strengthen our faith when we feel helpless or confused. Through His Word and the power of His grace, He can open the eyes of our heart of faith to see that He loves us and is working for our good. The devil has an uncanny way of taking our focus off God and having us dwell on our problems or issues until they become magnified and we lose sight of God. You might say that from time to time we need a spiritual attitude adjustment that puts our spiritual sight back in focus and lets us see things the way they really are. 

Once we have a faith that leans on God and trusts in His promises, we can then pray for God to help us trust His plan and know that His plan is always best for us, even when we can’t see or understand what is happening. Paul puts it this way: “that you may know the hope to which he has called you.” When our spiritual sight gets out of focus, we tend to lose sight of the hope we have in God and begin to feel hopeless and helpless. When we are brought again to realize that we have hope with God for this life and an even better hope waiting for us in heaven, we can then learn to trust God’s plans and direction in our life. This does not mean that things will always be rosy and happy, but we know that we have an underlying hope that guides us and sustains us in this life until we experience that hope perfectly in heaven. 

Prayer

Heavenly Father, forgive me when I let the devil get the best of me and I lose sight of You and Your promises and working in my life. Through Your Word, strengthen my faith and lead me to trust in You and Your work in my life, knowing that You always do what is best for me. I ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.