3 Prayers I Dare You to Pray
By Neil Hoffman
I saw a webcomic once that was titled, “If We Talked to People the Way We Talk to God.” It featured a man telling his wife to pick up a few things from the grocery store, but he was doing it like this: “Babe, could you just, just pick up some milk, babe, while you’re at the store? Just go ahead, babe, and just, just go to the milk section, babe. Just grab a gallon of milk and just, just place it right in your cart. Babe.”
A lot of us do pray like this. It’s like we forget that we’re talking to somebody when we pray.
Other times we just treat God like a magic eight ball or a vending machine. Our prayers are typically safe, indecisive, and generally things like “help us,” “bless us,” “protect us,” and “give me this.”
Don’t get me wrong, we should absolutely go to God with whatever’s on our hearts, and my point here today is not to make you feel self-conscious about the language you use in prayer or whether you’re the most eloquent person on earth. Today I want to challenge you step out in faith and pray these three simple, impactful prayers from the Bible.
Prayer 1: “Search Me”
Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.
- Psalms 139:23-24
Many of us do bad or questionable things and then say, “Well, God knows my heart.” As if that’s a good thing for us! God does know our hearts – He knows what wickedness and deceit they’re capable of. The problem is that we often don’t know our own hearts.
The truth is that we need to check ourselves. It’s hard to see yourself objectively, and we need God’s Holy Spirit to help us do just that. Otherwise, how will we ever overcome our faults, our bad habits, and our blind spots?
King David prayed this passage. As wonderful as we think he was, as great of a reputation that he has even to this day, he understood that he was sinful and that sin is a hindrance to being who God made him to be.
This prayer is a cry of humility, admitting that we need God even for us to understand ourselves. We need God even to be able to repent.
Prayer 2: “Stretch Me”
This is a prayer we instinctually don’t like. It’s dangerous. It seems like a stupid thing to pray because it might come true – and stretching hurts!
But just like our physical bodies, when we are never challenged and always comfortable, we atrophy. We grow stiff, useless, and miserable, immune to comfort.
Many of us want to pray this prayer, but we’re afraid. King David was afraid too! That’s why he mentioned his “anxious thoughts” and then asked God to lead him in the everlasting way. That sounds like a good time of stretching to me.
We cannot be afraid of being uncomfortable (2 Corinthians 1:3-7).
What we fear most reveals where we trust God the least. We have to face our fears to grow out of them. We have to be stretched in order to be effective.
Be cautious; I encourage you to pray this prayer, but remember that God will answer it! Be ready to look to Him for strength, to go to His Word for wisdom, and to have an attitude of joy and peace to take you through whatever God has in store to teach you and train you.
Prayer 3: “Send Me”
Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!
- Isaiah 6:8
This is another radical prayer that has the power to not only change your life but the lives of others as well. If you are a Christian, that is because at some point, God sent someone. A mother, a father, a neighbor, or friend – even the disciples of Jesus were sent from God to us, to proclaim His truth and love.
When Isaiah spoke these words, volunteering to go where God wanted Him, he was having a vision of the throne room of heaven. He saw God’s glory and the angels surrounding Him in worship, and it caused him to stand up and be counted. When you and I understand who God truly is, we can’t help but stand up and say, “I’m willing to give what you want me to give, go where you want me to go. God you are so great that I want to be your servant – what can I do for You?”
If you ask God to use you, He will.
3 Challenges
Each of these three prayers is dangerous for those who only want pleasure, radical for those who only wish to be comfortable, and too much for those who are unwilling to give. But if you want to be more than who you are today, these prayers are your strategy.
Do not pray these prayers lightly, but do pray them.
I dare you.
(This article is based off of a longer message. Click here to listen.)
