The Un-Offered Prayer

The Un-Offered Prayer

I was spending some time this afternoon preparing for an upcoming speaking/teaching opportunity [the theme is about intercession/intercessory prayer.] While I was praying and reading and researching on where I felt God was leading me, I came across this quote.

F.B. Meyer, the author of The Secret Guidance said, "The great tragedy of life is not unanswered prayer, but un-offered prayer." 

I never really thought about it that way before! The greatest tragedy in life is not that our prayers are not being answered, but that we didn't even attempt to pray. How many things in our own personal lives could have been prevented if we had just taken a moment to pray. Pray for direction. Pray for wisdom. Pray for insight. Prayed for protection over our families. Prayed for our attitudes. Prayed for .... well just about anything really. How different our days might become if we stopped first thing in the morning and committed to even just taking a brief moment to say, "Good Morning Father. I am here, please help guide my footsteps today!" How often do we jump out of bed in the morning without even thinking about talking to God until some crazy circumstance comes up in our day and suddenly we need His help. What IF... we learned to walk in a constant state of prayer and learned to truly be in communion with God. 

I have often heard people say things like "that is not something worthy of praying about" or "God has better things to deal with them helping me find something I lost" or "God's to busy to worry about this or that" or "I only talk to Him when someone is in the hospital!" 

The Bible says in Philippians 4:6, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in EVERY situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." 

Prayer is so important to the heart of God. There are like 650 prayers in the Bible! Prayer is like our pipeline to the Father. He cares about you and He wants to know the things that are in your heart. He wants to hear the things you might be hiding in secret. He wants to know why you are frustrated with your co-worker or that Lucy hurt your feelings at church or that you got angry and spoke without thinking and hurt someone else. We tend to think God is to "busy" to take time to listen to us or to care about the little things. That is such a trick of the enemy because what it does is it makes us question what we feel is important to talk about during times of prayer. 

Maybe something tragic has happened in your life and your hurt to the core. Perhaps you suffered the loss of a child, maybe you lost everything in a fire, perhaps you were sexually abused or bullied. Do we think that the one who created us doesn't already know the things in which we hide and hold on to? Do we think that whatever we have done or whatever guilt or shame might be attached to it is just "too much" for God to handle?

John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." HE LOVES YOU! He sent Jesus to die for YOU. He CARES. He cares about all of it! Jeremiah 1:5 says, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart." God KNOWS YOU! Okay so your upset with how your life is currently. Your angry that God allowed some tragic thing to happen in your life. Do you think that He doesn't already know your hurt or your angry? Can you imagine how much more your relationship would deepen if you just went to him at your current state? When you become so raw and undone in His presence. I can't tell you how many times I have just had to scream or throw a temper tantrum in prayer, because I was just so upset and so hurt and so ANGRY! But it was in those moments, in those places of being raw with Him that I began cultivating a deeper intimacy with Him. I allowed myself to just be who I was. I began allowing myself to trust that where I am at and who I am is more then enough for Him. I didn't have to put on a show, I didn't have to be an eloquent prayer warrior, I just had to be His daughter, His bride. 

So I have no idea where all that just came from, because I had no intentions of even going into all that! Ha-Ha. I guess God had other plans. With all that being said my prayer for you today would be that you would begin allowing yourself to be present with God, to be raw with Him, and more importantly that you would take a minute to stop and talk to Him. 

The more you talk with God, the more you get to listen to His heart beat and the more you allow Him into yours, the deeper your connection becomes. Then one day years from now you will realize you literally are in constant commune with Him. You are talking with Him in the car, in the store, walking down the hallway! It's amazing. 

I pray that you allow God into those deep, hidden places and that you TRUST HIM enough to lead you, guide you and ultimately heal you from anything that has been holding you back from where you are headed. God has great things in store for all of us, but He doesn't promise the walk will be easy, BUT He does promise us in Hebrews 13:5 that He will never leave us, nor forsake us!

With Love

Jessica 

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