Good Shepherd Lutheran

Pray on His Promises
It’s easy to give up on dreams, give up on miracles, give up on promises. When our prayers aren’t answered right away, too often we lose heart, lose patience, and lose faith. Like a tire with a slow leak, it happens without us even knowing it until our prayer life goes flat.
Our unanswered prayers don’t have to stay dead. They just need to be re-inflated and re-energized through God’s promises. Is there some dream that God wants you to resurrect? Is there some promise you need to reclaim? Is there some miracle you need to start believing for again?
The reason that many of us give up too soon is because we feel like we’ve failed if God doesn’t answer our prayer. That isn’t failure. The only way you can fail is if you stop praying. Even after three years of drought, even after a severe bout with depression, Elijah believed that God could still send a miracle.
One of the primary reasons we don’t pray all the way through to answered prayer is because we run out of things to say. Like an awkward conversation, we don’t know what to talk about. That’s when our prayers turn into a bunch of overused and misapplied clichés. So instead of praying hard about that big dream or big need, we’re left with small talk. Our prayers become as meaningless as a conversation about the weather. The solution? Pray through the Bible
One thing is certain, our most powerful prayers are connected to the promises of God. When you know you’re praying the promises of God, you can pray with holy confidence. You don’t have to second-guess yourself because you know that God wants you to claim his promises. According to the most conservative estimates, there are more than 3,000 promises in Scripture and by virtue of what Jesus accomplished on the cross, every one of them belongs to you. Every one of them has your name on it. The question is, how many of them have you claimed?
The Bible is both a promise book and a prayer book. But while reading is reactive, prayer is proactive. Prayer brings power to the promises we read about in the Bible. Prayer energizes God’s promises so that they become reality. That’s how the Bible gets through to you instead of you just reading through the Bible.
As you pray, the Holy Spirit will awaken certain promises in your heart. And while it’s tough to predict what, when, where, and how, over time the promises of God will become your promises.
Your prayers don’t have to be awkward conversations with the Almighty. He’s already given us a blueprint for what to say. So, pray on His promises!