Tag: Prayer

Pray Like An Athlete Plays

The tennis player was one set from elimination
Yet, the score served as no intimidation
Her serves and volleys stayed in continuation
Like she was going to have a championship celebration

Similarly, in one NBA finals
The team was three games behind in best of seven
No team ever won from this far behind
Yet, the team leader played like games just started
Didn’t care about the score or time

Common traits I’ve noticed among great athletes
They don’t care how far behind in scoring they are
They don’t care what little time they got
They press forward like the game has just started
Determined to win in their hearts
They don’t let opponents intimidate them
I’ve seen great athletes almost loose
Only to come back and ultimately win

When it comes to prayer,
I aspire to pray like an athlete plays
Pray without ceasing
Don’t let Devil intimidate me into getting beaten

It doesn’t matter how bad it looks
It doesn’t matter about the time on the clock
If you wanna win; pray with all the strength you got
When it seems, there are no more good days
Pray like an athlete plays.
Scripture Reference
Philippians 3:14
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Trivial Prayer

Sometimes I’m reluctant to pray
As I feel the situation is so trivial it will work itself out
And I want to use praying energy for things that seem like they’re hard
But recently I found myself having to do a “trivial” prayer
The deadline to the airport was near and I just had to be there

There was only one road to the airport and a car covered every inch of it
The possibility of missing the plane grew real by every minute
Another plane wouldn’t come for another day
And I couldn’t stand an overnight stay
As I was so ready to leave that land the previous day

So as traffic inched along the way
I didn’t want to bother God, but I knew no other way
I began to pray, telling Him I didn’t want to stay
Thereafter, traffic didn’t move much faster
But it moved fast enough to barely catch the plane
Thank You Jesus, bless Your name.
Insight
Is anything too hard for the Lord? (Genesis 18:14) for most of us that would be an easy no. But is anything so trivial or easy that we shouldn’t bring it to the Lord? Some of us may wrestle with this question. I know for me if I feel something is simple or it will work itself out; I may not pray about it. But big problems are the result of small problems going unattended. The Lord never said not to ask Him for small or trivial things. In Philippians 4:6 it says “be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God”.

Decades Old Prayer

It was an intercession prayer, but it directly impacted me
Not only did I pray about it, but I told God how to answer it
In my mind there was only one way to fix the problem
And I prayed very, very, hard He would adhere to me

But days went by, which turned into months, then years
Over a decade later problem was still there
I got tired of praying for God to answer prayer my way

Did I give up on thinking a God would answer this prayer?
I didn’t give up, but I stopped praying constantly about it
All the while I was praying to God to provide one way, I saw Him provide in other ways
It reminded of the scripture “ I never seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging bread” (Psalm 37:5)

God caused prosperity in other areas to exceed the lack
He blessed exceedingly and unexpectedly
So much, that I really didn’t need Him to answer the decades old prayer
BUT HE DID

Just got news a few days ago
It will be about 20 years exactly
God has answered the prayer better than I expected
And He fixed it so, that the problem will never occur again
God is faithful (1 Corinthians 1:9).

Insight
In Isaiah 49:13-16 the Lord says He will never forget us. In times when our prayers go unanswered, we may think the God doesn’t hear us or He may not care to answer. But He hears and has compassion for us, and may provide in other ways until He answers our specific prayer.