Lord, Teach Me To Pray: Be Careful What You Pray!
I learned early on in my role as a mother that prayer becomes a major part of our lives when our children are suffering. After our daughter was raped in high school, she went on a wild spree of rebellion and problems. My husband and I spent night after night on our knees praying. We begged the Lord for help, cried out, and agonized in prayer. We tried declaring Scriptures, speaking in faith that she would return to the Lord. We prayed words of deliverance. But circumstances just got worse!
At times things got so bad that I wanted to pray for God to take her home so that she would not lose her salvation. I prayed to close her womb so she would not get pregnant. I prayed to stop her, arrest her, rebuke her, catch her, and deliver her. I prayed everything and anything I could think of to get her out of this horrible time of our lives.
We tried everything we knew to do in prayer. Then one day the Lord said to me, “Tell her you are not going to pray any longer. Tell her she is free to serve the god she has chosen to serve.” The next time my daughter called me, I told her that we were done praying for her. She was on her own.
Never would it have crossed my mind to stop praying for her, but we did. Within a few weeks she had completely turned her life around for the good! Why? She experienced the loss of her prayer covering. All of a sudden she did not feel protected, but rather extremely vulnerable. She recognized the difference. To this day that amazes me!
Sometimes we take that covering of grace for granted and do not realize what prayer really does for us. Prayer gives us a canopy of safety, a hedge of protection, and a place of assurance in the spirit realm. Prayer watches over us and guards us from the enemy.
It was after we lifted that prayer hedge that our daughter began to see the error of her ways and returned to the Lord. I learned that sometimes our prayers may be preventing God from dealing with our children. There is a time for everything, and had we stopped praying sooner, who knows what may have happened. But God knew the exact time when to alert us to stop. Hearing His voice in prayer is so essential to praying His will accurately.
WATCH WHAT YOU PRAY FOR!
There is a saying that we are sometimes “hung by our tongue.” In other words, sometimes we end up experiencing or carrying out the words we speak.
Many years ago after finishing a ministry session in Kisumu, Kenya, a lady from Uganda came to me asking for prayer. She started telling me about the atrocities that were happening at that time to people in Uganda and in Sudan. People were having body parts cut off by rebels and women were being raped. Crying and extremely upset, this woman asked me to pray and petition God for intervention.
I willingly unleashed a loud, faith-filled prayer, asking God to send laborers, ministers of reconciliation, hope, deliverance, and divine intervention. There was no limit to my confession as I prayed, trusting God to hear my plea. Sometimes we pray bravely when we think it will be someone else who will be doing the actual ministry work!
Can you believe that within a few years I found myself in Uganda preaching at a convention during an Aids epidemic in the country? There were coffin shops lined up and down the streets, ready to sell caskets for people who were dying daily. Little did I realize that as I boldly asked for laborers those few years earlier, God would create a set of circumstances where I ended up in that very country for which I was praying!
Uganda was a nation recovering from war and cruel dictatorships. The people were desperate for help and hungry for God. Prayer groups had developed during their crisis, and the nation had cried out for deliverance.
Not only did I end up there ministering several times, but my daughter went to minister in that country and met a wonderful Ugandan man. They have been married for many years and live in Uganda with their two children, overseeing an incredible ministry there. My son, my husband, many of our church members, ministers and others have now been there to support and uplift what God is doing in that land. There certainly is power in prayer!
Mothers of Nations, I say all this to remind you that what you pray can come back to you. You may become the answer to the very words you speak! Do not pray empty words. Pray being willing to be used of the Lord to fulfill those prayers.
I prayed for laborers to be sent, and God called my whole family. God says in His Word that when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd. Matthew 9: 37-38 says, "Then He said to His disciples, The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest."
I am sure the disciples prayed and they became laborers as well. Prayer develops in us a heart of compassion and a willingness to be sent out into the mission field. Yes, watch out what you pray. You just might be the answer to that prayer!
Dr. Sharon Predovich
