Pray with Assurance and Faith

Today in SOL, we talked about prayer. One thing about prayer that I really want to thank God for is that He has been building up my prayer life ever since last year, through mission trip, ministry, random praying with friends, for friends, for revival, churchwide pray&fast……Looking back, I have grown so much in prayer, Thank You, Lord!!!

But here I have this problem. I always knew that God has His own will in all things and I have no problem acknowledging that there will certainly be unanswered prayers as we do not have the full understanding of what His plan is. My problem comes when I prayed for my friends(especially non-christians). Sometimes, I really want to pray together with them, but I don't have the assurance that God will answer the prayers. God may has His own will rather than what we prayed for. Or even if I did prayed for that person on my own, I don't have the gut to tell him that I prayed for Him. I don't want to, through unanswered prayers, stumble their impressions in God, thinking that prayers doesn't work and God is not real. If we prayed and God did not answer accordingly at that moment, will they not think that this God is just a delusion?

So after the class, I approached my facilitator regarding this and he give me this word "theocentric prayer", to pray, focus on God, not that person of his/her circumstances. Why do you intercede for that person? Not because you want him to be well, to have a better impression of how God looks like, but because you acknowledge that God loves him and want to step into his life, you acknowledge that he is God's beloved, you acknowledge that he need God. Pray for him with the focus for God to fulfil His purposes in that person's life.

As I reflected upon this and seek God, God revealed to me these things:

Your part is only to pray, it is God's part to act. Don't unknowingly take up God's role or worry about if God will do something about it. After all, whether God answers the prayer or not, He has his perfect plan, right? The logic string is this:

God wants all to be saved.—When you pray for your friends, God hears it. – It's God's choice whether to answer the prayer or not. – No matter what God is going to do, there is no need to worry. – God won't do something that stumbles that person's impression on Him, and be drawn away from God. After all, He wants all to come to know Him.

Sometimes it takes many people to pray, over a certain period of time, before the person sees God. He might be laughing at you, but sometimes it just takes a fool to win the world for Christ. Do you mind being the fool for God?

Really thank God for what He taught me!