When People Pray: Trusting God Enough to Kill Your OxenSample

Your Breakthrough is in Your Praise!

Prayer is no picnic… Prayer is Warfare.

But we are not now, nor have we ever been on defense.  “Prayer is your first line of offense against the enemy, not your last line of defense.” Brian Hill, Works24 Media Group

Life is hard sometimes, isn’t it? Name a time when you felt that way… 

Prayer is the way that we interact with the only true source of POWER.  Whether we know it or not, or are willing to acknowledge it or not, we are in the midst of a battle between two kingdoms.  

Surrender is not for sissies or for the faint of heart… Surrender is required for all who submit themselves under the Mantle of Jesus. 

“Sometimes we don’t feel like praying, just like a soldier doesn’t always feel like training or going into combat. But what matters is that you show up for duty. It’s the same with prayer. Showing up for prayer is half the battle.” Brian Alarid

Just like Elisha, Jesus comes to us in the middle of our comfortable position (with our 12 yoke of oxen or our salaried job) and then He lays an opportunity that will require us to GIVE everything in order to GAIN everything.

•  Like the man who received the gospel of the Kingdom of God and his whole world fell apart; and then in the next breath it was put back together like it was designed to be from the beginning.

•  Like the single mom who believed so much in the word of God that she wasted all her oil only to receive more oil than she could have possibly imagined.

•  Like the daughter who died and gave her last breath, but through prayer she received resurrection.

•  Like the son who gave up everything so that we could in turn gain everything.

Acts 16:25 tells the story of Paul & Silas in prison.  Their story teaches us that ultimately GIVEing our Everything isn’t about GAINing Anything.

“Your breakthrough is in your Praise…” Let that resound in your heart.

What if we turned every complaint into PRAISE? What if in every bleak situation, we turned to PRAISE? What if in every uncertainty and every sorrow, we stopped to PRAISE?

“I am not a theologian or a scholar, but I am very aware of the fact that pain is necessary to all of us. In my own life, I think I can honestly say that out of the deepest pain has come the strongest conviction of the presence of God and the love of God.” Elizabeth Elliot 

PRAYER IS SURRENDER.

Be honest.  Have you ever thought: if prayer doesn’t change the outcome, then why do we even bother to pray?

When Jesus retreated to the Garden of Gethsemane, did He pray the wrong prayer?  There is no doubt, his first petition was not answered. Then neither was His second. But you know the story… Jesus leads the way, when in His third prayer, He changes his request. “Father, let your will be done, not mine.”

What if your prayer is less about getting the answer you want and more about the need to surrender? 

“Prayer is an act of surrendering your will to God’s will.” Brian Alarid

Your Breakthrough is in your Praise.